Sequence tag directed subassembly of short sequencing reads into long sequencing reads

ABSTRACT

The invention provides compositions and methods for preparing DNA sequencing libraries. In particular, the method relates to preparing DNA sequencing libraries from kilobase scale nucleic acids. The invention also provides methods for assembling short read sequencing data into longer contiguous sequences. The method is useful for various applications in genomics, including genome assembly, full length cDNA sequencing, metagenomics, and the analysis of repetitive sequences of assembled genomes.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.12/559,124, filed Sep. 14, 2009, which claims the benefit of U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/096,720, filed Sep. 12, 2008, both ofwhich are expressly incorporated by reference herein in their entirety.

STATEMENT REGARDING SEQUENCE LISTING

The sequence listing associated with this application is provided intext format in lieu of a paper copy and is hereby incorporated byreference into the specification. The name of the text file containingthe sequence listing is 40489_Seq_Final.txt. The text file is 4 KB; wascreated on Dec. 27, 2012; and is being submitted via EFS-Web with thefiling of the specification.

BACKGROUND

Massively parallel DNA sequencing platforms have recently become broadlyavailable (see, for example, Mardis, E. R., “The Impact ofNext-Generation Sequencing Technology on Genetics,” Trends Genet.24:133-141 (2008), and Wold, B., et al., “Sequence Census Methods forFunctional Genomics,” Nat. Methods 5:19-21 (2008)). Several platformsoperate at a fraction of the per-base costs of conventionalelectrophoretic sequencing, but produce sequence reads that are over anorder of magnitude shorter and less accurate. These short reads haveinformation content such that most are uniquely mappable to genomes withan existing reference assembly, enabling a variety of “sequence census”applications (see Wold, B. and Myers, R. M., “Sequence Census Methodsfor Functional Genomics,” Nat. Methods 5:19-21 (2008)). However, theshort lengths and high error rates impose significant limitations on theutility of short reads for applications such as de novo genome assembly,full length cDNA sequencing, metagenomics, and the interrogation ofnon-unique subsequences of assembled genomes. Towards addressing theselimitations, this invention provides methods and compositions thatenable the clustering of short reads derived from the samekilobase-scale fragments. Each cluster of short reads can then belocally assembled in silico into a single long read or a mate-pair oflong reads, which are referred to as “subassemblies.”

SUMMARY

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in asimplified form that are further described below in the DetailedDescription. This summary is not intended to identify key features ofthe claimed subject matter nor is it intended to be used as an aid indetermining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

In general, the invention relates to methods for preparing a library ofDNA molecules, wherein the resulting library is useful for determiningthe nucleotide sequence of kilobase-scale DNA molecules. In particular,the methods of the invention are useful for assembling short reads ofnucleotide sequence into longer reads of nucleotide sequence, allowingthe sequence of kilobase-scale DNA fragments to be assembled.

In one aspect, the invention provides a method for preparing a DNAsequencing library, the method comprising the following steps:

(a) circularizing a target fragment library with a plurality of adaptormolecules to produce a population of circularized double-stranded DNAmolecules, wherein the plurality of adaptor molecules comprises a firstdefined sequence P1, a degenerate sequence tag, and a second definedsequence P2, such that at least one circularized double-stranded DNAmolecule comprises a non-degenerate sequence tag and a member of thetarget fragment library;

(b) amplifying the population of circularized double-stranded DNAmolecules to produce a plurality of copies of each circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule, wherein the copies of each circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule comprise the same non-degenerate sequencetag;

(c) fragmenting the plurality of copies of each circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule to produce a plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules, wherein the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules may be the same or different, and at leastone of the plurality of linear double-stranded DNA molecules containsthe non-degenerate sequence tag present in the plurality of copies ofeach circularized double-stranded DNA molecule;

(d) adding a third defined sequence P3 to at least one of a first endand a second end of at least one of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules from step (c); and

(e) amplifying a region of at least one of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules to produce a plurality of amplicons,wherein at least one amplicon comprises the non-degenerate sequence tagand sequence complementary to a portion of a single member of the targetfragment library.

In a second aspect, the invention provides a method for preparing a DNAsequencing library comprising the following steps:

(a) circularizing a target fragment library with a plurality of adaptormolecules to produce a population of first circularized double-strandedDNA molecules, wherein the plurality of adaptor molecules comprises afirst defined sequence P1 comprising a first restriction enzymerecognition site R1, a degenerate sequence tag, and a second definedsequence P2 comprising a second restriction enzyme recognition site R2,such that at least one of the first circularized double-stranded DNAmolecule comprises a non-degenerate sequence tag and a member of thetarget fragment library;

(b) amplifying the population of first circularized double-stranded DNAmolecules to produce a plurality of copies of each first circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule, wherein the copies of each firstcircularized double-stranded DNA molecule comprise the samenon-degenerate sequence tag;

(c) fragmenting the plurality of copies of each first circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule to produce a plurality of first lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules, wherein the plurality of first lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules may be the same or different, and at leastone of the plurality of first linear double-stranded DNA moleculescontains the non-degenerate sequence tag present in the plurality ofcopies of each first circularized double-stranded DNA molecule;

(d) adding a third defined sequence P3 to at least one of a first endand a second end of at least one of the plurality of first lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules from step (c);

(e) digesting at least one of the first linear double-stranded DNAmolecules from step (d) with restriction enzyme R1, thereby producing anR1 digested double-stranded DNA molecule;

(f) circularizing the R1 digested double-stranded DNA molecule with afirst bridging oligonucleotide B1 to generate a second circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule;

(g) amplifying the second circularized double-stranded DNA molecule ofstep (f) to produce a plurality of copies of the second circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule;

(h) fragmenting the plurality of copies of the second circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule to produce a plurality of second lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules, wherein at least one of the plurality ofsecond linear double-stranded DNA molecules contains the non-degeneratesequence tag present in the plurality of copies of the secondcircularized double-stranded DNA molecule;

(i) adding a fourth defined sequence P4 to at least one of a first endand a second end of at least one of the plurality of second lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules; and

(j) amplifying a region of at least one of the plurality of secondlinear double-stranded DNA molecules to produce a plurality ofamplicons, wherein each amplicon comprises the non-degenerate sequencetag and sequence complementary to a portion of a single member of thetarget fragment library.

In a related aspect, the method comprises the following additionalsteps:

-   -   (i) digesting at least one of the first linear double-stranded        DNA molecules having a third defined sequence P3 added to at        least one of a first end and a second end with restriction        enzyme R2, thereby producing an R2 digested double-stranded DNA        molecule;    -   (ii) circularizing the R2 digested double-stranded DNA molecule        with a second bridging oligonucleotide B2 to generate a third        circularized double-stranded DNA molecule;    -   (iii) amplifying the third circularized double-stranded DNA        molecule to produce a plurality of copies of the third        circularized double-stranded DNA molecule;    -   (iv) fragmenting the plurality of copies of the third        circularized double-stranded DNA molecule to produce a plurality        of third linear double-stranded DNA molecules, wherein at least        one of the plurality of third linear double-stranded DNA        molecules contains the non-degenerate sequence tag present in        the plurality of copies of the third circularized        double-stranded DNA molecule;    -   (v) adding a fifth defined sequence P5 to at least one of a        first end and a second end of at least one of the plurality of        third linear double-stranded DNA molecules; and    -   (vi) amplifying a region of at least one of the plurality of        third linear double-stranded DNA molecules to produce a        plurality of amplicons comprising the sequence tag, wherein each        amplicon comprises the non-degenerate sequence tag and sequence        complementary to a portion of a single member of the target        fragment library.

In a third aspect, the invention provides a method for preparing a DNAsequencing library that involves cloning a kilobase-scale targetfragment library into a vector having restriction enzyme recognitionsites flanking the cloned insert, wherein the cognate restrictionenzymes that bind to the recognition sites digest the insert DNA suchthat a portion of each end of the insert DNA remains attached to thevector after digestion. The end portions of the insert are thensequenced to provide a sequence tag that is useful for assemblingmicrosequencing reads into longer contiguous sequences (contigs),referred to herein as subassemblies. According to this aspect of theinvention, the end portion sequences are assembled with sequences frominternal portions of the kilobase-scale insert. The method providessequencing templates for generating sequencing reads that can besubassembled into longer contigs and comprises the following steps:

(a) providing a population of circular double-stranded DNA molecules;wherein each circular double-stranded DNA molecule comprises a sequenceof interest having a first end joined to the first end of a vectorsequence, an internal portion, and a second end joined to the second endof the vector sequence;

(b) fragmenting a portion of the population of circular double-strandedDNA molecules to produce a plurality of linear double-stranded DNAmolecules;

(c) adding a common adaptor sequence to at least one end of at least oneof the plurality of linear double-stranded DNA molecules; and

(d) amplifying a region of at least one of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules to produce a plurality of amplicons,wherein at least one amplicon comprises sequence complementary to thesequence of interest.

According to this aspect of the invention, the plurality of ampliconsare sequenced, producing a pair, or at least two, associated sequencesper amplicon, wherein the associated sequences comprise a first sequencefrom an end portion of the insert sequence and a second sequence from aninternal portion of the insert. The location of the internal sequence isdetermined by the fragmentation breakpoint from step (b) above. Theplurality of associated sequences is assembled into subassemblies,wherein sequences that are complementary to an internal portion of theinsert sequence are assembled if they are associated with the samesequence that is complementary to an end portion of the insert. Thisresults in subassemblies from both ends of an insert sequence. In orderto associate subassemblies from each end of an insert sequence with eachother, this aspect of the method provides the following additionalsteps:

-   -   (i) digesting a portion of the population of circular        double-stranded DNA molecules from step (a) above with at least        one restriction enzyme; and    -   (ii) recircularizing at least one of the digested        double-stranded DNA molecules.

According to this aspect of the invention, the recircularized DNAmolecules are sequenced using primers that anneal to the vectorsequence, thereby producing sequencing reads corresponding to both endsof the insert sequence. Because the end sequences from both ends of thesame insert are now known, the subassemblies from each end of an insertsequence of interest can be associated with each other, allowing thesubassemblies to be assembled into larger contigs comprising thesequence of interest.

In a fourth aspect, the invention provides a method for preparing a DNAsequencing library entirely in vitro that does not requirecircularization of nucleic acid fragments or cloning of fragments into avector. The method of this aspect of the invention comprises thefollowing steps:

(a) incorporating at least one first nucleic acid adaptor molecule intoat least one member of a target library comprising a plurality ofnucleic acid molecules, wherein at least a portion of the first adaptormolecule comprises a first defined sequence;

(b) amplifying the plurality of nucleic acid molecules to produce aninput library comprising a first plurality of amplified DNA molecules,wherein the amplified molecules comprise sequence identical to orcomplementary to at least a portion of the first adaptor molecule andsequence identical to or complementary to at least a portion of at leastone member of the target library;

(c) fragmenting the input library to produce a plurality of linear DNAfragments having a first end and a second end;

(d) attaching at least one second nucleic acid adaptor molecule to oneor both ends of at least one of the plurality of linear DNA fragments,wherein at least a portion of the second adaptor molecule comprises asecond defined sequence;

(e) amplifying the plurality of linear DNA fragments to produce asequencing library comprising a second plurality of amplified DNAmolecules, wherein at least one of the plurality of amplified DNAmolecules comprises sequence identical to or complementary to at least aportion of the first adaptor molecule, sequence identical to orcomplementary to at least a portion of the second adaptor molecule, andsequence identical to or complementary to at least a portion of a memberof the target library.

In another aspect, the invention provides a kit for preparing a DNAsequencing library, the kit comprising a mixture of double-stranded,partially degenerate adaptor molecules, wherein each adaptor moleculecomprises a first defined sequence P1, a sequence tag that is fully orpartially degenerate within the mixture of adaptor molecules, and asecond defined sequence P2, wherein the degenerate sequence tagcomprises from 5 to 50 randomly selected nucleotides. In another aspect,the invention provides a kit comprising a vector modified withrestriction enzyme recognition sites that are useful for digesting acloned sequence of interest, such that a portion of each end of thecloned insert DNA remains attached to the vector after digestion. In yetanother aspect, the invention provides a kit comprising at least one ofa plurality of first nucleic acid adaptor molecules, and at least one ofa plurality of second nucleic acid adaptor molecules.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The foregoing aspects and many of the attendant advantages of thisinvention will become more readily appreciated as the same become betterunderstood by reference to the following detailed description, whentaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 shows a schematic illustration of a representative embodiment ofthe invention, illustrating the circularization of a plurality of targetDNA fragments with a degenerate adaptor sequence tag, thereby producinga plurality of circular DNA molecules having non-degenerate sequencetags, as described in Example 1;

FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the isothermal amplification of acircularized DNA molecule shown in FIG. 1 to produce a plurality ofcopies comprising the target fragment and a non-degenerate sequence tag,in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 3 schematically illustrates additional steps of one embodiment ofthe invention, wherein copies of a circularized DNA molecule comprisingthe target fragment and a non-degenerate sequence tag, as shown in FIG.2, are fragmented to produce linear DNA fragments, a common adaptorsequence is added to one or both ends of each fragment, a region of eachfragment is amplified by PCR, and the amplified products are sequenced;

FIG. 4 schematically illustrates the clustering of sequence readsderived from sequencing the PCR amplified regions shown in FIG. 3,wherein sequences comprising the same non-degenerate sequence tag areclustered into longer subassemblies corresponding to each end of atarget DNA fragment, in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5 schematically illustrates another aspect of the invention,wherein linear DNA molecules comprising a non-degenerate sequence tagand a common adaptor sequence at both ends, as shown in FIG. 3, aredigested with restriction enzymes and circularized with bridgingoligonucleotides, thereby producing circular DNA molecules having adistal sequence of interest brought into close proximity to the adaptorsequence;

FIG. 6 schematically illustrates the amplified copies of circular DNAmolecules circularized with bridging oligonucleotides shown in FIG. 5,in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 7 schematically illustrates linear DNA molecules produced byfragmentation of the amplified copies of circular DNA molecules shown inFIG. 6, wherein the linear DNA molecules have a common defined sequenceadded to both ends and further illustrates the amplification andsequencing of a region of each linear DNA molecule, in accordance withan embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 8 schematically illustrates the clustering of sequence reads fromthe amplified regions shown in FIG. 7, wherein sequences comprising thesame non-degenerate sequence tag are clustered into longer subassembliescorresponding to a target fragment sequence that was located distal tothe adaptor sequence;

FIG. 9 schematically illustrates another aspect of the invention,wherein a target fragment library is constructed in a plasmid vector,the circular molecules are fragmented to produce linear fragments, acommon adaptor is added to both ends of the linear DNA fragments, aregion of each linear fragment is amplified by PCR, and sequencescomprising sequence from the same end portions of a target sequence areclustered into subassemblies;

FIG. 10 schematically illustrates another embodiment of the method shownin FIG. 9, wherein the circular molecule comprising a target sequence ofinterest is digested with restriction enzymes that remove the internalportion of the sequence of interest, thereby allowing the joining andamplification of both ends of the sequence of interest.

FIGS. 11A-11C schematically illustrate another aspect of the invention,wherein a target fragment library is constructed in vitro using a DNAtag to identify groups of shotgun sequence reads derived from the samegenomic fragment, wherein the groups of shotgun sequences aresubassembled into longer sequences;

FIG. 12 shows a histogram of minimal distances between potential sitesof origin for keystone sequence tags mapped to the Pseudomonasaeruginosa reference genome, where the X-axis represents distancebetween genomic locations of sequence tags in base-pairs and the Y-axisrepresents the number of sequence tag pairings, as described in Example2;

FIG. 13 shows a histogram of the expected mass distribution forPseudomonas aeruginosa genomic fragments that served as startingmaterial, where the histogram of FIG. 12 is adjusted for the mass offragments within each size range, the X-axis represents distance betweengenomic locations of sequence tags in base-pairs, and the Y-axisrepresents mass equivalents in arbitrary units, as described in Example2;

FIG. 14 shows a histogram of the length distribution of shotgunsubassembly fragments obtained from a representative embodiment of themethod applied to a subset of Pseudomonas genomic fragments, asdescribed in Example 3;

FIG. 15 shows a histogram of the distribution of subassembled readlength for the P. aeruginosa genomic sample; as described in Example 3;

FIG. 16 shows a graph of the cumulative per-base substitution error rateof base calls binned as a fraction of descending base quality in raw(triangles) and subassembled (diamonds) reads, as described in Example3;

FIG. 17 shows a graph of the substitution error rate of base calls as afunction of base position in raw (triangles; lower X-axis) andsubassembled (diamonds, upper axis (bp)) reads, as described in Example3;

FIG. 18 shows a histogram of the length distribution of metagenomicfragments, as described in Example 4;

FIG. 19 shows a bar graph of the distribution of subassembled readlength for the metagenomic sample comparing unmerged (filled bars) andmerged (hatched bars) Tag-Defined Read Groups, as described in Example4;

FIG. 20 shows a graph comparing the assembly of metagenomic subassembedreads (diamonds) to an assembly of a standard shotgun library(triangles), as described in Example 4; and

FIG. 21 shows a venn diagram illustrating reciprocal coverage acrossdata sets, as described in Example 4.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In one aspect, the present invention provides methods for preparing aDNA sequencing library. The methods of the invention are useful for theclustering of micro-sequencing reads derived from the samekilobase-scale DNA fragment. Each cluster of microreads is assembledinto a single long read or an associated pair of long reads, which aretermed subassemblies. In the context of massively parallel sequencing,the subassembly of microreads derived from the same kilobase-scaleregion can be assembled de novo, which has computational advantages overdirect de novo assembly of microreads, for example, into a full genomesequence.

Unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used hereinhave the meaning commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the artto which this invention belongs. Practitioners are particularly directedto Sambrook, J., and Russell, D. W., eds., Molecular Cloning: ALaboratory Manual, 3rd ed., Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, ColdSpring Harbor, N.Y. (2001), and Ausubel, F. M., et al., CurrentProtocols in Molecular Biology (Supplement 47), John Wiley & Sons, NewYork (1999), which are incorporated herein by reference, for definitionsand terms of the art.

In one embodiment, the method for preparing a DNA sequencing libraryincludes the following steps:

(a) circularizing a target fragment library with a plurality of adaptormolecules to produce a population of circularized double-stranded DNAmolecules, wherein the plurality of adaptor molecules comprises a firstdefined sequence P1, a degenerate sequence tag, and a second definedsequence P2, such that at least one circularized double-stranded DNAmolecule comprises a non-degenerate sequence tag and a member of thetarget fragment library;

(b) amplifying the population of circularized double-stranded DNAmolecules to produce a plurality of copies of each circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule,

wherein the copies of each circularized double-stranded DNA moleculecomprise the same non-degenerate sequence tag;

c) fragmenting the plurality of copies of each circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule to produce a plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules, wherein the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules may be the same or different, and at leastone of the plurality of linear double-stranded DNA molecules containsthe non-degenerate sequence tag present in the plurality of copies ofeach circularized double-stranded DNA molecule;

(d) adding a third defined sequence P3 to at least one of a first endand a second end of at least one of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules from step (c); and

(e) amplifying a region of at least one of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules to produce a plurality of amplicons,wherein at least one amplicon comprises the non-degenerate sequence tagand sequence complementary to a portion of a single member of the targetfragment library.

In the method, a target fragment library of linear DNA molecules iscircularized with a plurality of adaptor molecules. As used herein, theterm “target fragment” refers to a DNA molecule comprising a sequence ofinterest. As used herein, the term “library” refers to a population ofDNA molecules, wherein each member of the population may be the same ordifferent. In one embodiment, the target fragment library is composed ofgenomic DNA that is randomly fragmented and size-selected to a definedkilobase-scale range, for example, 0.3 to 10 kilobases in length.However, the method can be performed using a DNA library derived fromany source, for example, a cDNA library that is generated from RNAisolated from a biological sample. In some embodiments, the targetfragment library is isolated from a eukaryotic organism, which includesall organisms with a nucleus in their cells, for example, animals,plants, fungi, and protists. In other embodiments, the target fragmentlibrary is isolated from a prokaryotic organism, such as a bacterium. Inone embodiment, the target fragment library is derived from DNA or RNAisolated from a virus.

FIG. 1 illustrates a representative embodiment of the method. Referringto FIG. 1, a plurality of double-stranded DNA fragments 10, 10 a, 10 b,10 c is circularized with a plurality of adaptor molecules 20, therebygenerating a population of circular molecules 52 that contain a DNAfragment 10 and an adaptor molecule 20. In some embodiments the methodproduces a population of circularized double-stranded DNA molecules 52,wherein each circular DNA molecule comprises a different sequence tag42. In one embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1, the DNA fragments of thelibrary are end-repaired and tailed with deoxyadenosine (A-tailed) atthe 3′ ends of the fragment, using methods well known in the art.

The adaptor molecule 20 comprises a first defined sequence 30 (alsoreferred to herein as P1), a degenerate sequence tag 40, and a seconddefined sequence 50 (also referred to herein as P2). In someembodiments, the adaptor molecule 20 is 35 base-pairs (bp) to 150 bp inlength. In one embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the defined sequences 30 and50 flank the sequence tag 40. In some embodiments, the defined sequencesP1 and P2 are the same sequence in every adaptor molecule and arereferred to herein as common defined sequences. The defined sequences P1and P2 can be any nucleotide sequence and, in some embodiments, are 15bp to 50 bp in length. In some embodiments, the P1 and P2 sequences areselected based on the desired properties of oligonucleotide primers thatwill anneal to the sense or antisense strand of the P1 and P2 sequence.Primers that anneal to the P1 and P2 sequences are useful for amplifyingsubregions of the DNA fragment, for example, by the polymerase chainreaction (PCR), as described below. In one embodiment, defined sequenceP1 comprises a restriction enzyme (RE) recognition site. In anotherembodiment, defined sequence P2 comprises an RE recognition site.

In one embodiment, the degenerate sequence tag 40 is a randomly selectednucleotide sequence 5 to 50 nucleotides in length. It will beappreciated that a sequence is degenerate in the context of a pluralityof adaptor molecules, whereas each individual adaptor moleculepotentially comprises a non-degenerate sequence 42. Therefore, if thenumber of circularized double-stranded DNA molecules is less than thenumber of possible degenerate sequences, each circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule potentially contains a uniquenon-degenerate sequence tag 42.

Referring again to FIG. 1, in some embodiments, the adaptor molecule 20is tailed with deoxythymidine (T-tailed) at the 3′ ends using methodswell known in the art. In this embodiment, the A-tailed DNA fragmentsare ligated to the T-tailed adaptor molecules, thereby generatingcircularized double-stranded DNA molecules. DNA fragments that are notcircularized with an adaptor molecule may be degraded by digestion withexonuclease.

After the target fragment library is circularized with the plurality ofadaptor molecules, the population of circularized double-stranded DNAmolecules are amplified to produce one or more copies of eachcircularized double-stranded DNA molecule. In one embodiment, thecircularized double-stranded DNA molecules are amplified usingisothermal rolling circle amplification, as described in Lizardi, P. M.,et al., “Mutation Detection and Single-Molecule Counting UsingIsothermal Rolling-Circle Amplification,” Nat. Genet. 19 (3):225-232,July 1998. In another embodiment, the circularized double-stranded DNAmolecules are amplified by multiple displacement amplification, asdescribed in Dean, F. B., et al., “Comprehensive Human GenomeAmplification Using Multiple Displacement Amplification,” PNAS 99(8):5261-5266, April 2002.

FIG. 2 illustrates one representative embodiment of this step of themethod. As shown in FIG. 2, the amplification step may produceconcatemerized copies 54 of each circularized DNA molecule. The copies54 of each circularized DNA molecule contain the same non-degeneratesequence tag 42. By “same non-degenerate sequence tag,” it is understoodthat each circularized DNA molecule 52 contains a potentially uniquenon-degenerate sequence tag 42 and that amplification produces one ormore copies of at least one circularized DNA molecule, wherein each copycontains the same non-degenerate sequence tag that was present in theparent circularized DNA molecule 52. As used herein, the term “each”includes one or more.

Following amplification, the copies 54 of each circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule are fragmented to produce a plurality oflinear double-stranded DNA molecules. After fragmentation, at least one,and preferably many, of the linear double-stranded DNA molecules containthe same non-degenerate sequence tag 42 present in the parentcircularized DNA molecule 52 that was amplified in the previous step. Inone embodiment, fragmentation is accomplished by nebulization, asdescribed in Sambrook and Russell (2001). In another embodiment,fragmentation is accomplished by sonication, as described in Sambrookand Russell (2001). A representative example of this step of the methodis illustrated in FIG. 3. The fragmentation breakpoints 56 areessentially random, generating linear double-stranded DNA molecules 55wherein the adaptor sequence 20 is located at various distances from theends 56 of the linear double-stranded DNA molecules 55. Note thatbecause of the essentially random fragmentation process, some fragmentsmay not contain the adaptor sequence (not shown); these fragments willnot be useful in the following steps of the method and will not bedescribed further. In one embodiment, the DNA fragments are end-repairedand A-tailed. Referring again to FIG. 3, in some embodiments a thirddefined adaptor sequence 60, referred to herein as P3, is added to oneor both ends of at least one of the plurality of linear double-strandedDNA molecules 55. In one embodiment shown in FIG. 3, a plurality oflinear double-stranded DNA molecules 58 comprises the P3 sequence 60 atboth ends of the molecule. The P3 sequence may be any nucleotidesequence. In one embodiment, the P3 sequence is 15 bp to 50 bp inlength. In one embodiment, the P3 sequence is T-tailed to facilitateligation to the A-tailed DNA fragments. In one embodiment, the P3sequence is designed as a binding site for oligonucleotide primers thatare useful for amplifying a region of the linear double-stranded DNAmolecule, for example, by PCR. In some embodiments, the P3 sequenceadded to one end of at least one of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules is the same or different than the P3sequence added to the other end of the linear double-stranded DNAmolecules. It is appreciated that, in the practice of the method, a P3sequence may not be added to one or both ends of every lineardouble-stranded DNA molecule in the plurality of linear double-strandedDNA molecules.

In the methods, one or more regions of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules may be amplified to facilitate sequencingthe nucleotides in the target DNA fragment. In one embodiment, theregion of interest is amplified by PCR. In another embodiment,multi-template PCR is performed to amplify a plurality of regions inparallel, thereby producing a plurality of PCR products. As used herein,another term for PCR product is “amplicon.” In one embodiment, one ormore amplicons in the plurality of amplicons has one end comprisingsequence that corresponds to a fragmentation breakpoint internal to atarget fragment and another end comprising sequence that corresponds tothe non-degenerate tag sequence circularized with the target fragment.As used herein, a nucleotide sequence “corresponds” to anothernucleotide sequence if it comprises a sequence that is identical to, orcomplementary to, all or part of the other sequence. As used herein, theterm “complementary” includes nucleotide sequence that is at least 60%,at least 70%, at least 80%, at least 85%, at least 90%, at least 95%, orat least 99% identical to the sense or antisense strand of anothernucleotide sequence. It will be understood that the term identical asused herein encompasses errors introduced during processing of anucleotide sequence, such as by PCR amplification or sequencingreactions.

In one embodiment, the sample containing the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules is split into two samples and a portion ofeach sample is used as a template for a PCR reaction with a common pairof primers. In one embodiment, a region of at least one of the pluralityof linear double-stranded DNA molecules is amplified to produce aplurality of amplicons, wherein at least one amplicon comprises thenon-degenerate sequence tag and sequence complementary to a portion of asingle member of the target fragment library. In another embodiment, theplurality of amplicons comprising the non-degenerate sequence tagfurther comprises at least one amplicon comprising sequencecomplementary to a portion of defined sequence P1 and a portion ofdefined sequence P2.

A representative example of one embodiment of this step of the method isillustrated in FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3, a primer 70 that iscomplementary to a portion of P3 sequence 60 is paired with primer 80that is complementary to a portion of P2 sequence 50 in PCR reaction 1,thereby producing PCR 1 amplicon 100. In another reaction, primer 70that is complementary to a portion of P3 sequence 60 is paired withprimer 90 that is complementary to a portion of P1 sequence 30 in PCRreaction 2, thereby producing PCR 2 amplicon 200. The orientation of thenon-degenerate sequence tag 42 depends on which primer pair is used: Thenon-degenerate sequence tag 42 in amplicons produced using primer pair70/80 (P3/P2) is in an opposite orientation to the non-degeneratesequence tag 42 in amplicons produced using primer pair 70/90 (P3/P1).

It is understood that whereas FIG. 3 shows only two representativeamplicons 100, 200 amplified from two linear double-stranded DNAmolecules 58, in the practice of the method, one or more regions of aplurality of double-stranded DNA molecules are amplified, therebyproducing a plurality of amplicons comprising sequence from differentregions of the target fragment molecule 10. The location of theamplified regions is determined by the fragmentation breakpoints 56 inthe copies of each circularized double-stranded DNA molecule, asdescribed above.

As shown in FIG. 3, in one embodiment PCR 1 amplicon 100 includes targetfragment sequence that is proximal to P1 sequence 30, whereas PCR 2amplicon 200 includes target fragment sequence that is proximal to P2sequence 50. As used herein, the term proximal refers to sequence thatis located adjacent to, nearest to, or at the same end of a molecule asa reference sequence. In one embodiment, the plurality of ampliconscomprising the non-degenerate sequence tag 42 further comprises at leastone amplicon comprising sequence from at least one of the lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules, wherein the sequence from at least one ofthe linear double-stranded DNA molecules is located proximal to P1. Inanother embodiment, the plurality of amplicons comprising thenon-degenerate sequence tag further comprises at least one ampliconcomprising sequence from at least one of the linear double-stranded DNAmolecules, wherein the sequence from at least one of the lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules is located proximal to P2.

The method further comprises sequencing the target fragment library. Themethod provides templates useful for micro-sequencing technologies, suchas those described in Mardis, E. R., “The Impact of Next-GenerationSequencing Technology on Genetics,” Trends Genet. 24:133-141 (2008), andWold, B., et al., “Sequence Census Methods for Functional Genomics,”Nat. Methods 5:19-21 (2008). In one embodiment, the lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules from step (d) above can be directlysequenced, for example, using massively parallel single molecule DNAmicro-sequencing technologies without amplifying a subregion of themolecule. In some embodiments, the amplified regions of the targetfragment sequence serve as the sequencing templates. The amplifiedregions are useful as templates for massively parallel DNAmicro-sequencing technologies because some of these sequencing platformshave maximal template lengths on the order of 500 to 1,000 base pairs.In one embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3, sequencing reads 110 and 120 ofPCR 1 amplicon 100 and sequencing reads 210 and 220 of PCR 2 amplicon200 are primed using primers that are complementary to the sense orantisense strand of P3 sequence 60 and primers that are complementary tothe sense or antisense strand of the adaptor sequence 20. As shown inFIG. 3, sequencing reads 110, 210 comprise sequence internal to thetarget fragment, wherein the start point of each sequence is determinedby the essentially random fragmentation breakpoints 56 in the copies ofeach circularized double-stranded DNA molecule. Sequencing reads 120,220 comprise the non-degenerate sequence tag 42. In one embodiment, theplurality of amplicons are sequenced using a first oligonucleotideprimer that is complementary to the sense strand of the adaptor sequenceand a second oligonucleotide primer that is complementary to theantisense strand of P3. In another embodiment, the plurality ofamplicons are sequenced using a first oligonucleotide primer that iscomplementary to the antisense strand of the adaptor sequence and asecond oligonucleotide primer that is complementary to the sense strandof P3.

In one embodiment, the plurality of amplicons is sequenced from bothends, thereby producing a pair of associated end sequences from one ormore of the plurality of amplicons. As used herein, the term“associated” refers to two or more sequences comprising sequence fromthe same target fragment, such that one sequence comprises thefragmentation breakpoint or sequence proximal to the fragmentationbreakpoint, and the second sequence comprises at least a portion of thenon-degenerate sequence tag. In another embodiment, the method comprisessequencing the plurality of amplicons to produce a plurality ofassociated sequences. In one embodiment, the associated sequencescomprise a first sequence comprising a fragmentation breakpoint in thelinear double-stranded DNA molecule and a second sequence comprising thenon-degenerate sequence tag. In another embodiment, the associatedsequences comprise a first sequence comprising sequence proximal to afragmentation breakpoint in the linear double-stranded DNA molecule anda second sequence comprising the non-degenerate sequence tag.

In one embodiment, a plurality of amplicons amplified from a pluralityof linear double-stranded DNA molecules comprising the samenon-degenerate sequence tag is sequenced in parallel, thereby producinga plurality of associated sequences comprising the same non-degeneratesequence tag. In another embodiment, a plurality of amplicons amplifiedfrom a plurality of linear double-stranded DNA molecules comprisingdifferent non-degenerate sequence tags are sequenced in parallel,thereby producing a plurality of associated sequences comprisingdifferent non-degenerate sequence tags. Subassembly of short reads withthe same degenerate sequence tag into long reads.

In the method, sequencing reads comprising the same non-degeneratesequence tag are clustered with the corresponding associated sequencingreads to produce a longer sequencing read, also referred to herein as asubassembly. In one representative embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4, aplurality of sequencing reads 130 derived from a plurality of PCR 1amplicons 100 and a plurality of sequencing reads 230 derived from aplurality of PCR 2 amplicons 200 is clustered together usingcomputational algorithms. Computational algorithms useful for assemblingnucleotide sequences are well known in the art and include the phrapalgorithm (developed at the University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.),as further described in Example 1. In one embodiment, associatedsequences are clustered with other associated sequences that contain thesame non-degenerate sequence tag to produce a subassembly. Clusteredsequences with the same non-degenerate sequence tag are potentiallyderived from the same target fragment. A cluster of sequences in whichthe non-degenerate sequence tag is oriented in the same 5′ to 3′direction corresponds to one end of each circularized target fragment. Acluster of sequences in which the same non-degenerate sequence tag isoriented in the opposite direction corresponds to the other end of thesame circularized target fragment. The method allows clusters ofassociated sequences from each end of a kilobase-scale target fragmentto be assembled into subassemblies of longer sequences. The potentiallength of subassembled longer sequences is limited by the maximaltemplate length that is compatible with the sequencing platform ofchoice. In one embodiment, the method comprises assembling the pluralityof associated sequences that include the same non-degenerate sequencetag to generate one or more longer sequences comprising fragmentationbreakpoint sequences from the plurality of linear double-stranded DNAmolecules. In some embodiments, gel-based size selection of PCRamplicons and independent sequencing of PCR amplicons from differentsize ranges is performed to provide additional information to helpposition short micro-reads for subassembly into longer reads. Arepresentative embodiment of this aspect of the invention is describedin Example 1.

In a second aspect of the invention, a method is provided for preparinga DNA sequencing library that brings more distal fragmentationbreakpoints into close proximity to the non-degenerate sequence tag. Themethod is useful because some sequencing platforms perform optimallywith template molecules that are relatively short, for example, lessthat about 500 base pairs in length. This aspect of the method bringsmore distal fragmentation breakpoints into close proximity to theadaptor molecule, allowing the subassembly of additional sequences fromthe target fragment that otherwise could not be sequenced due to thelength of the template molecule. In one embodiment, the method comprisesthe following steps:

(a) circularizing a target fragment library with a plurality of adaptormolecules to produce a population of first circularized double-strandedDNA molecules, wherein the plurality of adaptor molecules comprises afirst defined sequence P1 comprising a first restriction enzymerecognition site R1, a degenerate sequence tag, and a second definedsequence P2 comprising a second restriction enzyme recognition site R2,such that at least one of the first circularized double-stranded DNAmolecule comprises a non-degenerate sequence tag and a member of thetarget fragment library;

(b) amplifying the population of first circularized double-stranded DNAmolecules to produce a plurality of copies of each first circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule, wherein the copies of each firstcircularized double-stranded DNA molecule comprise the samenon-degenerate sequence tag;

(c) fragmenting the plurality of copies of each first circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule to produce a plurality of first lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules, wherein the plurality of first lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules may be the same or different, and at leastone of the plurality of first linear double-stranded DNA moleculescontains the non-degenerate sequence tag present in the plurality ofcopies of each first circularized double-stranded DNA molecule;

(d) adding a third defined sequence P3 to at least one of a first endand a second end of at least one of the plurality of first lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules from step (c);

(e) digesting at least one of the first linear double-stranded DNAmolecules from step (d) with restriction enzyme R1, thereby producing anR1 digested double-stranded DNA molecule;

(f) circularizing the R1 digested double-stranded DNA molecule with afirst bridging oligonucleotide B1 to generate a second circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule;

(g) amplifying the second circularized double-stranded DNA molecule ofstep (f) to produce a plurality of copies of the second circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule;

(h) fragmenting the plurality of copies of the second circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule to produce a plurality of second lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules, wherein at least one of the plurality ofsecond linear double-stranded DNA molecules contains the non-degeneratesequence tag present in the plurality of copies of the secondcircularized double-stranded DNA molecule;

(i) adding a fourth defined sequence P4 to at least one of a first endand a second end of at least one of the plurality of second lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules; and

(j) amplifying a region of at least one of the plurality of secondlinear double-stranded DNA molecules to produce a plurality ofamplicons, wherein each amplicon comprises the non-degenerate sequencetag and sequence complementary to a portion of a single member of thetarget fragment library.

In this aspect of the invention, the method steps (a)-(d) are similar tosteps (a)-(d) of the previous method, discussed above, with the addedfeature that defined sequences P1 and P2 contain recognition sites forrestriction enzymes. The restriction enzyme recognition sites may be thesame or different. In one embodiment, the cognate restriction enzymesthat bind to the recognition sites are infrequent cutters, for example,homing endonucleases. Homing endonucleases are double-stranded DNasesthat have large, asymmetric recognition sites (12-40 base pairs). Homingendonucleases are well known in the art, and include the enzymes I-CeuI,I-SceI, PI-PspI and PI-SceI.

In one embodiment, the method provides for adding a common definedsequence P3 to at least one end of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules generated by fragmenting the plurality ofcopies of each circularized DNA molecule. In one embodiment, the linearDNA fragments are end-repaired and A-tailed, and ligated to a T-tailedP3 sequence.

In one embodiment, the sample containing the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules with P3 at one or both ends is split intotwo samples. Each sample is digested with a restriction enzyme that cutsin sequence P1 and/or sequence P2. Therefore, one embodiment of thisaspect of the invention comprises the following additional steps:

-   -   (i) digesting at least one of the first linear double-stranded        DNA molecules from step (d) with restriction enzyme R2, thereby        producing an R2 digested double-stranded DNA molecule;    -   (ii) circularizing the R2 digested double-stranded DNA molecule        with a second bridging oligonucleotide B2 to generate a third        circularized double-stranded DNA molecule;    -   (iii) amplifying the third circularized double-stranded DNA        molecule to produce a plurality of copies of the third        circularized double-stranded DNA molecule;    -   (iv) fragmenting the plurality of copies of the third        circularized double-stranded DNA molecule to produce a plurality        of third linear double-stranded DNA molecules, wherein at least        one of the plurality of third linear double-stranded DNA        molecules contains the non-degenerate sequence tag present in        the plurality of copies of the third circularized        double-stranded DNA molecule;    -   (v) adding a fifth defined sequence P5 to at least one of a        first end and a second end of at least one of the plurality of        third linear double-stranded DNA molecules; and    -   (vi) amplifying a region of at least one of the plurality of        third linear double-stranded DNA molecules to produce a        plurality of amplicons comprising the sequence tag, wherein each        amplicon comprises the non-degenerate sequence tag and sequence        complementary to a portion of a single member of the target        fragment library.

FIG. 5 illustrates one representative embodiment of the method. InReaction 1, a linear double-stranded fragment 300 having a defined P3sequence 60, 61 at both ends is digested with a first restriction enzyme(RE1) that recognizes a binding site within common defined P1 sequence30. In Reaction 2, a linear double-stranded fragment 400 having adefined P3 sequence 60, 61 at both ends is digested with a secondrestriction enzyme (RE2) that recognizes a binding site within commondefined P2 sequence 50. As further shown in FIG. 5, in Reaction 1, theRE1 digested molecule 310 is ligated to a first bridging oligonucleotide320, referred to herein as BR1, thereby producing a circular DNAmolecule (indicated by the dashed line). Similarly, in Reaction 2, theRE2 digested molecule 410 is ligated to a second bridgingoligonucleotide 420, referred to herein as BR2, thereby producing acircular DNA molecule (indicated by the dashed line). In one embodiment,the bridging oligonucleotide BR1 comprises sequences complementary to atleast a portion of RE1 digested P1 sequence 31, and further comprisessequences complementary to at least a portion of P3 sequence 60, 61. Inone embodiment, the bridging oligonucleotide BR2 comprises sequencescomplementary to at least a portion of RE2 digested P2 sequence 51 andfurther comprises sequences complementary to at least a portion of P3sequence 60, 61. In one embodiment, sequences 60 and 61 are the same. Inone embodiment, sequences 60 and 61 are different.

Referring again to FIG. 5, in one embodiment RE1 digestion results inremoval of sequences upstream of the adaptor molecule 20 and theligation reaction with bridging oligo BR1 results in the distal,downstream P3 sequence 61 being located adjacent to the adaptor sequencein the circularized molecule 322. In one embodiment, sequence 61 islocated adjacent to the RE1 digested P1 sequence 31. In anotherembodiment, RE2 digestion results in removal of sequences downstream ofthe adaptor molecule 20 and the ligation reaction with bridging oligoBR2 results in the distal, upstream P3 sequence 60 becoming locatedadjacent to the adaptor sequence in the circularized molecule 422. Inparticular, sequence 60 is located adjacent to the RE2 digested P2sequence 51.

In the method, the circularized molecules 322, 422 generated using thebridging oligos are amplified to produce a plurality of copies of eachcircularized double-stranded DNA molecule. In one embodiment, thecircularized double-stranded DNA molecules are amplified usingisothermal rolling circle amplification. In another embodiment, thecircularized double-stranded DNA molecules are amplified using multipledisplacement amplification.

Referring now to one representative embodiment shown in FIG. 6, Reaction1 illustrates the plurality of concatemerized copies 330 of adouble-stranded DNA molecule circularized by ligation to BR1, asdescribed above. Reaction 2 illustrates the plurality of concatemerizedcopies 430 of a double-stranded DNA molecule circularized by ligation toBR2, as described above. In the plurality of copies 330, the P3 sequence61 is located adjacent to and upstream of RE1 digested P1 sequence 31.In the plurality of copies 430, the P3 sequence 60 is located adjacentto and downstream of RE2 digested P2 sequence 51.

In one embodiment, the plurality of copies of each circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule are fragmented to produce a plurality oflinear double-stranded DNA molecules. In this embodiment, one or more ofthe linear double-stranded DNA molecules contains the samenon-degenerate sequence tag present in the double-stranded DNA moleculecircularized with the bridging oligonucleotides BR1 or BR2. In oneembodiment, the plurality of copies of each circularized double-strandedDNA molecule are fragmented by nebulization. In another embodiment, theplurality of copies of each circularized double-stranded DNA moleculeare fragmented by sonication.

In one embodiment, a common defined sequence P4 is added to one or bothends of the plurality of linear double-stranded DNA molecules. Inanother embodiment, a common defined sequence P5 is added to one or bothends of the plurality of linear double-stranded DNA molecules. In someembodiments, P4 and P5 are the same or different. The common definedsequences P4 and P5 may be any sequence of nucleotides. In someembodiments, the common defined sequences P4 and P5 are 15 bp to 50 bpin length. In one embodiment, the common defined sequences P4 and P5 aredesigned as binding sites for oligonucleotide primers that are usefulfor amplifying a region of the linear double-stranded DNA molecule, forexample, by PCR.

Referring now to one representative embodiment shown in FIG. 7, Reaction1 illustrates a linear double-stranded DNA molecule 340 produced byfragmentation of the copies of each double-stranded DNA moleculecircularized with bridging oligo BR1, as described above. Reaction 2illustrates a linear double-stranded DNA molecule 440 produced byfragmentation of the copies of each double-stranded DNA moleculecircularized with bridging oligo BR2, as described above. A commondefined sequence 342 is added to one or both ends of the linear fragment340, and a common defined sequence 442 is added to one or both ends ofthe linear fragment 440. In some embodiments, sequences 342 and 442 arethe same or different.

In one embodiment, oligonucleotide primers 350 and 352 are used toamplify a region of linear double-stranded DNA molecule 340, andoligonucleotide primers 450 and 452 are used to amplify a region oflinear double-stranded DNA molecule 440. Amplification Reaction 1produces at least one amplicon 360, referred to herein as PCR 1, andamplification Reaction 2 produces at least one amplicon 460, referred toherein as PCR 2. Whereas only one representative amplicon isillustrated, it is understood that a PCR reaction typically produceshundreds to thousands of copies (amplicons) of each template sequence,thereby producing a plurality of amplicons comprising sequence from eachamplified region of the target fragment. Thus, as used herein, the term“amplicon” includes the plurality of amplicons produced by a PCRreaction. In one embodiment, the amplicons are less than about 500 bp inlength. In another embodiment, the amplicons are less than about 1,000bp in length.

In one embodiment, amplicons 360 and 460 are sequenced to produce atleast two associated sequencing reads from each amplicon, wherein theterm “each amplicon” includes at least one of the plurality of ampliconsproduced by a PCR reaction. In the practice of the method, it isunderstood that, based on the availability of reagents and reactionkinetics, only a subset of the population of amplicons from an amplifiedregion may be used as templates for a sequencing reaction. As shown inFIG. 7, in one embodiment, the amplicons 360 and 460 are end sequenced,thereby producing a pair of associated end sequences 362, 364 fromamplicon 360 and a pair of associated end sequences 462, 464 fromamplicon 460. Sequencing reads 362 and 462 are primed using primerscomplementary to the common defined sequence 342 and 442, respectively.Sequencing reads 364 and 464 are primed using primers complementary to aportion of adaptor sequence 20. Sequencing reads 362 and 462 comprisesequence internal to a target fragment and, in one embodiment, furthercomprise sequence corresponding to a fragmentation breakpoint in theplurality of copies 330, 430 of the double-stranded DNA moleculescircularized with a bridging oligonucleotide. Sequencing reads 364 and464 comprise sequence complementary to the non-degenerate sequence tagsequence. While only one amplicon for each reaction is illustrated, itis understood that in some embodiments a plurality of differentamplicons are sequenced, wherein the plurality of different ampliconscomprise sequence from the same target fragment and sequence from thesame non-degenerate sequence tag. In one embodiment, a plurality ofamplicons is sequenced to produce a plurality of associated sequences,wherein the associated sequences comprise a first sequence comprising afragmentation breakpoint in one of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules, wherein the linear double-stranded DNAmolecules are fragments of a double-stranded DNA molecule circularizedwith a bridging oligonucleotide and a second sequence comprising thenon-degenerate sequence tag sequence.

In the practice of the method, the plurality of associated sequences areclustered and assembled as described above. In one representativeembodiment illustrated in FIG. 8, a subassembly 500 of short readscomprising the same non-degenerate sequence tag are assembled intolonger reads of contiguous sequences derived from the same targetfragment 10. One subassembly includes the plurality of associatedsequences 510 from the target fragment circularized with the firstbridging oligonucleotide BR1. One subassembly includes the plurality ofassociated sequences 520 from the target fragment circularized with thesecond bridging oligonucleotide BR2. The potential length of thesubassembled contig is limited by the extent to which long DNA moleculescan be reliably circularized with the bridging oligonucleotides. In someembodiments, gel-based size selection of PCR amplicons and independentsequencing of PCR amplicons from different size ranges is performed toprovide additional information to help position short micro-reads forsubassembly into longer reads.

In a third aspect, the invention provides methods for preparing a DNAsequencing library that does not rely on a non-degenerate sequence tag,but instead uses the ends of a target fragment as the sequence tags. Inone embodiment of this aspect of the method, target DNA fragments arecloned into a vector that comprises two type IIs restriction enzyme (RE)sites flanking the cloning insert site. Type IIs restriction enzymes arewell known in the art and generally cut at a distance from an asymmetricrecognition site. In some embodiments, the two type IIs RE sites areoriented such that the corresponding restriction enzymes digest sequencetags derived from either end of the target fragment shotgun cloned intothe vector.

In one embodiment, the invention provides a method for preparing a DNAsequencing library comprising the following steps:

(a) providing a population of circular double-stranded DNA molecules;wherein each circular double-stranded DNA molecule comprises a sequenceof interest having a first end joined to the first end of a vectorsequence, an internal portion, and a second end joined to the second endof the vector sequence;

(b) fragmenting a portion of the population of circular double-strandedDNA molecules to produce a plurality of linear double-stranded DNAmolecules;

(c) adding a common adaptor sequence to at least one end of at least oneof the plurality of linear double-stranded DNA molecules; and

(d) amplifying a region of at least one of the plurality of lineardouble-stranded DNA molecules to produce a plurality of amplicons,wherein at least one amplicon comprises sequence complementary to thesequence of interest.

In one embodiment, the sequence of interest comprises genomic DNA. Inanother embodiment, the sequence of interest comprises cDNA.

FIG. 9 illustrates one representative embodiment of the method. Acircular double-stranded DNA molecule 600 comprises a vector sequence602 and an insert sequence of interest 604, wherein the insert sequence604 comprises a first end portion 606, a second end portion 608, and aninternal portion 610. In one embodiment, the vector sequence 602comprises a first common defined sequence 630, referred to herein as P1,adjacent to end portion 606 of the insert sequence 604, and a secondcommon defined sequence 650, referred to herein as P2, adjacent to endportion 608 of the insert sequence 604. In one embodiment, commondefined sequence 630 contains a type I is RE recognition site. Inanother embodiment, common defined sequence 650 contains a type IIs RErecognition site. In one embodiment, the type IIs RE recognition sitesin sequence 630 and 650 are the same. In another embodiment, the typeIIs RE recognition sites in sequence 630 and 650 are different. Whereasonly one circular DNA molecule is illustrated, it is understood that insome embodiments a plurality of target fragments comprising multiplesequences of interest are cloned into the vector, thereby generating apopulation of circular double-stranded DNA molecules.

In one embodiment, the circular DNA molecule 600 comprises a clonedinsert sequence of interest 604 and a vector 602 comprising anantibiotic resistance gene. In one embodiment, a population of circularDNA molecules, also known as plasmids, are transformed into E. colibacteria using standard methods known in the art and the transformedbacteria are cultured in liquid media containing antibiotic selection,thereby multiplying the population of circular DNA molecules. Thepopulation of circular DNA molecules constitutes a target fragmentlibrary. A library comprising multiple different inserts cloned into avector is also known in the art as a shotgun library. The complexity ofthe library is determined by the transformation efficiency. After asuitable number of bacteria are obtained, the circular plasmid DNA isextracted from the bacteria using methods known in the art. Theextracted plasmid DNA contains many copies of each library member.

Referring again to FIG. 9, in one embodiment a portion of the populationof circular double-stranded DNA molecules is fragmented to produce aplurality of linear double-stranded DNA molecules 612. In oneembodiment, the DNA molecules are fragmented by nebulization, asdescribed above. In another embodiment, the DNA molecules are fragmentedby sonication, as described above. In some embodiments, the linear DNAfragments are end-repaired and A-tailed using methods known in the art.Because the fragmentation step is essentially random, some of thebreakpoints will occur in the insert DNA 604, producing fragmentedinsert DNA 615 proximal to defined sequence 630 and fragmented insertDNA 617 proximal to defined sequence 650. In one embodiment, a commondefined adaptor sequence 660, referred to herein as P3, is added to oneor both ends of the linear double-stranded DNA molecules 612 to producefragments 614. In one embodiment, the common adaptor sequence P3 isT-tailed to facilitate ligation to the A-tailed linear double-strandedDNA fragments.

As further shown in FIG. 9, in some embodiments the sample is split andtwo separate PCR reactions (PCR 1, PCR 2) are performed, therebyamplifying a region of the plurality of linear double-stranded DNAmolecules. In one embodiment, primer 631, which anneals to defined P1sequence 630, and primer 662, which anneals to common defined adaptor P3sequence 660, are used to PCR amplify amplicon 666. In anotherembodiment, primer 651, which anneals to defined P2 sequence 650, andprimer 662, which anneals to common defined adaptor P3 sequence 660, areused to PCR amplify amplicon 664. Amplicon 664 comprises insert sequence617 that is proximal to defined sequence 650, and amplicon 666 comprisesinsert sequence 615 that is proximal to defined sequence 630. Whereasonly two representative amplicons are shown, it is understood that, insome embodiments, a plurality of amplicons is produced by the PCRreactions, wherein one or more amplicons comprise sequence correspondingto the sequence of interest 604.

In one embodiment, the fragments 614 may be sequenced using primers thatanneal to common defined sequence 630, common defined sequence 650, andcommon defined sequence 660, thereby producing a plurality of associatedsequences. In some embodiments, the plurality of amplicons, for example,representative amplicons 664 and 666, are sequenced. As shown in FIG. 9,in one embodiment, sequencing reads 670 are primed from common definedsequence 660, whereas sequencing reads 672 are primed from either commondefined sequence 630 or common defined sequence 650. Sequencing reads672 comprise a sequence tag that corresponds to the end portions 606,608 of a cloned target fragment of interest. Sequencing reads 670comprise sequence internal to the target fragment of interest.

In one embodiment, the method comprises sequencing the plurality ofamplicons described above to produce at least two associated sequencesfrom at least one amplicon, wherein the associated sequences comprise afirst sequence comprising sequence complementary to an end portion ofthe sequence of interest and a second sequence comprising sequencecomplementary to an internal portion of the sequence of interest,thereby producing a plurality of associated sequences complementary toan end portion and an internal portion of the sequence of interest. Asused in this aspect of the invention, the term “associated” refers totwo or more sequences comprising sequence from the same sequence ofinterest, such that one sequence comprises the fragmentation breakpoint,or sequence proximal to the fragmentation breakpoint, and the secondsequence comprises sequence from a first end portion or second endportion of the cloned sequence of interest.

In the method, the plurality of associated sequences are assembled toproduce one or more longer sequences, also called subassemblies, asdescribed above. The sequences are assembled into a subassembly if onesequence corresponds to the same end portion sequence. In therepresentative embodiment illustrated in FIG. 9, clusters of associatedsequences 674, 676 are located at each end of the sequence of interest.Cluster 674 comprises sequence from a first end portion 606 of asequence of interest 604, whereas cluster 676 comprises sequence from asecond end portion 608 of a sequence of interest 604. In one embodiment,the method comprises assembling the plurality of associated sequences togenerate one or more longer subassemblies comprising sequencecomplementary to the sequence of interest, wherein sequences that arecomplementary to an internal portion of the sequence of interest areassembled if they are associated with the same sequence complementary toan end portion of the sequence of interest.

In the method described in this aspect of the invention, the tagsequences used to associate and assemble sequences correspond to eachend of the cloned sequence of interest, rather than to the samenon-degenerate sequence tag. Therefore, the method further comprisesadditional steps necessary to join together subassemblies derived fromeach end of a sequence of interest. In one embodiment, a portion of thepopulation of circular double-stranded DNA molecules described above isdigested with restriction enzymes that recognize the restriction enzymebinding sites present in common defined sequences P1 and P2. Referringnow to FIG. 10, in one representative embodiment a circular DNA molecule600 is digested with RE1 and RE2, resulting in a linear molecule 678having end portions 606 and 608. In one embodiment, the restrictionenzymes are type IIs restriction enzymes. Examples of exemplary type IIsrestriction enzymes include BsgI and BtgZ1. In one embodiment, RE1 andRE2 are the same or different. In some embodiments, the linear moleculeis recircularized, for example, by self-ligation or using any othersuitable method known in the art, to produce a recircularized molecule679. While only one circular DNA molecule 600 is illustrated, it will beappreciated that in some embodiments the method comprises digesting aplurality of circular DNA molecules with restriction enzymes RE1 and/orRE2, wherein the plurality of circular DNA molecules comprise insertshaving different sequences of interest. In one embodiment, the methodfurther comprises digesting a portion of the population of circulardouble-stranded DNA molecules with at least one restriction enzyme, andrecircularizing at least one of the digested double-stranded DNAmolecules.

In another embodiment, a portion of the population of circulardouble-stranded DNA is mechanically sheared and at least one of thesheared molecules is recircularized. Mechanical shearing can beaccomplished by various methods known in the art, including nebulizationor sonication.

In some embodiments, the recircularized DNA molecules 679 are sequencedwithout further amplification, wherein at least one sequence comprisessequence that is complementary to one or both end portions of a sequenceof interest. In one embodiment, the sequencing reactions are primedusing primers that anneal to common defined sequence 630. In anotherembodiment, the sequencing reactions are primed using primers thatanneal to common defined sequence 650. In some embodiments, thesequencing reactions are primed using one or more primers that anneal tothe vector sequence 602.

Referring again to FIG. 10, in one embodiment the recircularizedmolecule 679 is amplified, for example, by PCR, using primers thatanneal to common defined sequences 630 and 650. While only one amplicon680 is illustrated, in some embodiments a plurality of recircularizedmolecules is amplified, using common primers, thereby producing aplurality of amplicons. In one embodiment, the plurality of ampliconscomprise sequence from both ends of the cloned sequence of interest 604.The representative amplicon 680, referred to herein as PCR 3, issequenced using primers that anneal to common defined sequence 630and/or common defined sequence 650, thereby producing sequencing reads682, referred to herein as R1, and/or 684, referred to herein as R2. Inone embodiment, the sequencing reads R1 and R2 comprise sequence that iscomplementary to one or both vector-adjacent end portions 606, 608 ofthe sequence of interest. In another embodiment, a plurality ofamplicons are sequenced, thereby producing a plurality of sequences,wherein at least one sequence comprises sequence that is complementaryto one or both ends of a sequence of interest. In some embodiments, themethod further comprises sequencing the plurality of amplicons toproduce at least two associated sequences, thereby producing a pluralityof associated sequences, wherein the at least two associated sequencescomprise a first sequence comprising sequence that is complementary to afirst end portion of a sequence of interest, and a second sequencecomprising sequence that is complementary to a second end portion of thesequence of interest. A representative embodiment of this aspect of theinvention is described in Example 2.

The invention further provides methods for associating the sequencesthat correspond to one or both end portions of a sequence of interestwith the one or more longer contiguous sequences (subassemblies)generated by assembling sequences associated with a first end portionand a second end portion of the sequence of interest, therebyassociating or mate-pairing the subassemblies from each end portion of asequence of interest with each other. In one embodiment, the methodcomprises associating the sequences comprising sequence that iscomplementary to both ends of a sequence of interest with the one ormore longer subassemblies described above, thereby associating thelonger subassemblies from a first end and a second end of a sequence ofinterest with each other. In another embodiment, the method comprisesassembling a first sequence that is complementary to a first end of asequence of interest with one or more subassemblies, thereby associatingthe first sequence with a subassembly comprising sequence complementaryto a first end portion of the sequence of interest. In anotherembodiment, the method comprises assembling a second sequence that iscomplementary to a second end of the sequence of interest with one ormore subassemblies, thereby associating the second sequence with asubassembly comprising sequence complementary to a second end portion ofthe sequence of interest.

In a fourth aspect, the invention provides methods for preparing a DNAsequencing library that does not rely on circularization of fragments orcloning of fragments into a vector. In one embodiment of this aspect ofthe method, termed “subassembly,” paired-end reads are obtained fromfragments of genomic or metagenomic DNA libraries where one of the readsserves as a DNA tag that identifies groups of short reads that arederived from the same DNA fragment. As used herein, the term metagenomicrefers to genomic DNA isolated from an uncultured microbial population.In one embodiment, the DNA fragments are about 300 to 600 bp in length.Each group of short, locally derived reads is merged usingbioinformatics tools into a single long, subassembled read.Bioinformatics tools include software programs or algorithmsspecifically programmed to be executable by a computer. Importantly, thelibrary construction of this aspect of the invention is entirely invitro, and thus avoids the biases associated with cloning into bacterialvectors.

In one embodiment, the method comprises the following steps:

(a) incorporating at least one first nucleic acid adaptor molecule intoat least one member of a target library comprising a plurality ofnucleic acid molecules, wherein at least a portion of the first adaptormolecule comprises a first defined sequence;

(b) amplifying the plurality of nucleic acid molecules to produce aninput library comprising a first plurality of amplified DNA molecules,wherein the amplified molecules comprise sequence identical to orcomplementary to at least a portion of the first adaptor molecule andsequence identical to or complementary to at least a portion of at leastone member of the target library;

(c) fragmenting the input library to produce a plurality of linear DNAfragments having a first end and a second end;

(d) attaching at least one second nucleic acid adaptor molecule to oneor both ends of at least one of the plurality of linear DNA fragments,wherein at least a portion of the second adaptor molecule comprises asecond defined sequence;

(e) amplifying the plurality of linear DNA fragments to produce asequencing library comprising a second plurality of amplified DNAmolecules, wherein at least one of the plurality of amplified DNAmolecules comprises sequence identical to or complementary to at least aportion of the first adaptor molecule, sequence identical to orcomplementary to at least a portion of the second adaptor molecule, andsequence identical to or complementary to at least a portion of a memberof the target library.

As used herein, the term “target library” refers to a plurality ofnucleic acid molecules whose sequence is desired to be known. In someembodiments, the target library comprises linear genomic or metagenomicDNA sequences. However, the target library may comprise or correspond toa plurality of any nucleic acid sequences, including sequence of singleand double-stranded nucleic acid molecules, linear or circular nucleicacid molecules, RNA, and cDNA molecules. As used herein, the term “inputlibrary” refers to a plurality of DNA molecules that comprise anincorporated adaptor molecule. In some embodiments, the input librarycomprises a target library wherein a plurality of linear target librarymolecules has an adaptor molecule attached to or incorporated at one orboth ends. In one embodiment, the adaptor molecule incorporated at oneend of a target library molecule is different than the adaptor moleculeincorporated at the other end. In one embodiment, the target librarycomprising an incorporated adaptor molecule is amplified to produce theinput library.

The term “incorporated” refers to any method of adding an adaptormolecule to a target library molecule, including ligation,amplification, etc. In one embodiment, the adaptor molecules arecovalently attached to the target library molecules. In someembodiments, the adaptor molecule is a single or double-stranded nucleicacid sequence. In one embodiment, the adaptor molecule is adouble-stranded DNA molecule. In some embodiments, the adaptor moleculecomprises a defined or known sequence and an unknown sequence. In oneembodiment, the unknown sequence is a degenerate sequence.

In this aspect of the method, the input library is fragmented to producea plurality of linear DNA fragments having a first end and a second end.The first end and second end of the fragments are also referred to asfragmentation breakpoints. In some embodiments, the input librarycomprises a plurality of concatemerized molecules, wherein theconcatemers comprise a plurality of target library molecules havingadaptor molecules attached to or incorporated therein. In thisembodiment, the concatemers are fragmented to produce a plurality oflinear concatemer fragments having a first end and a second end.

In another embodiment, the method comprises attaching at least onesecond nucleic acid adaptor molecule to one or both ends of at least oneof the plurality of linear DNA fragments. In one embodiment, at least aportion of the second adaptor molecule comprises a second definedsequence.

In another embodiment of this aspect of the method, the plurality oflinear DNA fragments comprising one or more first adaptor sequences andone or more second adaptor sequences is amplified to produce asequencing library. As used herein, the term sequencing library refersto a library of nucleic acid molecules that are ready for sequenceanalysis. In some embodiments, the sequencing library comprises a secondplurality of amplified DNA molecules, wherein at least one of theplurality of amplified DNA molecules comprises sequence identical to orcomplementary to at least a portion of the first adaptor molecule,sequence identical to or complementary to at least a portion of thesecond adaptor molecule, and sequence identical to or complementary toat least a portion of a member of the target library (for example,sequence corresponding to an original target library molecule). In someembodiments, the amplification step is carried out using PCR, whereinone PCR primer comprises sequence complementary to the first adaptorsequence and the second PCR primer comprises sequence complementary tothe second adaptor sequence. In one embodiment, the PCR primer pairsfurther comprise sequence useful for second-generation sequencingplatforms, as described below.

In some embodiments, the method further comprises sequencing the secondplurality of amplified DNA molecules to produce a plurality ofassociated sequences. In one embodiment, the associated sequencescomprise a first sequence adjacent to the first defined sequence of thefirst adaptor and a second sequence adjacent to the second definedsequence of the second adaptor. In one embodiment, at least one of thefirst sequences uniquely defines a single member of the target library(i.e., an original target library molecule whose sequence is desired tobe known), and the second sequence comprises sequence adjacent to afragmentation breakpoint from the fragmented input library. As usedherein, the term “adjacent to” refers to nucleic acid sequences that arelocated immediately 5′ or 3′ of another sequence, such as an adaptorsequence or a fragmentation breakpoint sequence.

In another embodiment, the plurality of associated sequences areassembled to generate one or more longer subassembled sequences, whereineach subassembled sequence comprises sequence from a target librarymolecule, as described below.

It will be understood that the methods described above (in the first,second and third aspects of the invention) for preparing DNA sequencinglibraries may be employed in the methods of this aspect of theinvention. For example, one method for carrying out step (a) of theabove method would be to circularize the target library with a pluralityof adaptor molecules to produce a plurality of circularized DNAmolecules. Thus, in some embodiments, the first step of the methodfurther comprises circularizing the target library with a plurality offirst adaptor molecules, wherein the plurality of first adaptormolecules comprises a first defined sequence P1, a degenerate sequencetag, and a second defined sequence P2, wherein at least one circularizednucleic acid molecule comprises the first adaptor molecule sequencehaving a non-degenerate sequence tag and sequence from a member of thetarget library.

In other embodiments, the first step of this aspect of the methodfurther comprises circularizing a target library with a plurality ofadaptor molecules to produce a population of circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecules, wherein the plurality of adaptormolecules comprises a first defined sequence P1 comprising a firstrestriction enzyme recognition site R1, a degenerate sequence tag, and asecond defined sequence P2 comprising a second restriction enzymerecognition site R2, such that at least one of the circularizeddouble-stranded DNA molecule comprises a non-degenerate sequence tag anda member of the target library.

Further, in one embodiment of this aspect of the method, the inputlibrary comprises a population of circular double-stranded DNAmolecules; wherein each circular double-stranded DNA molecule comprisesa vector sequence and a sequence of interest (i.e., sequence from atarget library molecule), the sequence of interest having a first endjoined to a first end of the vector sequence, an internal portion, and asecond end joined to a second end of the vector sequence.

FIG. 11 illustrates one representative embodiment of this aspect of themethods. Referring to FIG. 11A(i), genomic or metagenomic DNA israndomly fragmented to produce a first set of linear double-stranded DNAfragments 700, wherein the DNA fragments are size selected to produce aplurality of relatively long fragments 700. This first set of DNAfragments 700 is also known as a target library. In one embodiment, theDNA fragments are selected to be about 400 to 600 bp in length. Thefragments 700 are ligated to tag adaptors 710, 712 to produce aplurality of adaptor-ligated DNA fragments 702 a, 702 b, 702 c havingthe adaptor sequence incorporated at one or both ends of the linear DNAfragments. In one embodiment of the method, the tag adaptors 710, 712comprise different sequences. The plurality of adaptor-ligated fragments702 a, 702 b, 702 c are diluted, amplified by PCR using primers thatcorrespond to the adaptor sequences 710, 712, and randomly ligatedtogether to generate high-molecular weight concatemers 720 (FIG.11A(ii)). The dilution step prior to PCR effectively imposes acomplexity bottleneck, such that a limited number of shotgun libraryfragments are amplified to high-copy number. The high-molecular weightconcatemers 720 are randomly sheared or fragmented, as represented bythe dotted lines 722, to produce a second set of linear DNA moleculeshaving random breakpoints at each end.

Referring now to FIG. 11A(iii), a shotgun adaptor 714 is ligated to theends of the concatemers fragments. The ligation reaction will add theshotgun adaptor 714 to one or both ends of each concatemer fragment 720a, producing a plurality of concatemer fragments 724 having the shotgunadaptor 714 at one or both ends. In one embodiment, the plurality ofshotgun adaptor-ligated concatemer fragments 724 is amplified by PCRusing two sets of primer pairs in separate reactions. For simplicity,only one set of primer pairs is illustrated. The first set of primerpairs comprises a first PCR primer 716 that corresponds to tag adaptorsequence 710 and a second PCR primer 718 that corresponds to the shotgunadaptor sequence 714. The second set of primer pairs comprises a firstPCR primer that corresponds to tag adaptor sequence 712 (not shown) andthe same second PCR primer 718 that corresponds to the shotgun adaptorsequence 714. In one embodiment, the PCR primers include sequencescompatible with Illumina® flowcell sequencing technology. In oneembodiment, the first PCR primer 716 includes the flowcell compatibilitycomponent of the standard Illumina® paired-end forward adaptor sequenceat the 5′ end, and the primer 718 includes the flowcell compatibilitycomponent of the standard Illumina® paired-end reverse adaptor sequenceat the 5′ end. In some embodiments, the amplified PCR products aresize-selected to a range of about 300 to 600 bp.

Referring now to FIG. 11A(iv), the second set of PCR reactions producesa plurality of amplicons, wherein each amplicon has an Illumina® adaptorsequence 726, 728 at each end, wherein the Illumina® adaptor sequencesflank the tag adaptor 710 and the shotgun adaptor 714, respectively. Itwill be understood that the Illumina® adaptor sequences 726, 728 arealso added to fragments amplified with the second set of PCR primerpairs that corresponds to tag adaptor 712 and shotgun adaptor 714 (notshown). The second set of PCR reactions generates a population of nestedsub-libraries derived from the original long fragment library. Thepopulation of PCR products is end-sequenced using the Illumina®sequencing platform. The sequence read 730 adjacent to the tag adaptor710 (called the “tag read”) corresponds to one end of the originalgenomic or metagenomic fragment 700. The tag read 730 is useful foridentifying the original long DNA fragment from which a given ampliconwas derived. The sequence read 740 adjacent to the shotgun adaptor 714(“shotgun read”) corresponds to sequence adjacent to a randombreak-point in the original long DNA fragment. In one embodiment, thetag read 730 is about 20 bp, whereas the shotgun read 740 is about 76 bp(illustrated by the unequal sizes of the arrows 730 and 740). It will beunderstood that a second set of tag reads and shotgun reads are obtainedfrom the PCR products amplified using the second set of primer pairsdescribed above that correspond to tag adaptor 712 and shotgun adaptor714 (not shown).

Referring now to FIG. 11B, a further embodiment of the method will bedescribed. A plurality of paired-end sequences comprising a plurality oftag reads 730 and a plurality of shotgun reads 740 are obtained asdescribed above (FIG. 11B(i)). The shotgun reads 740 are grouped insilico using a computer programmed with executable instructions to run agrouping algorithm based on the sequence of the corresponding tag read730 (FIG. 11B(ii)). The group of shotgun reads 740 defined by a sharedtag read are randomly distributed across an original genomic ormetagenomic fragment 748 of unknown sequence. The group of shotgun reads740 is subjected to phrap assembly to generate one or more subassembledreads 750 that correspond in sequence to the original genomic fragment(for example, fragment 702 a of FIG. 11A). It will be further understoodthat a second set of shotgun reads are grouped based on the sequence ofthe corresponding tag read adjacent to adaptor 712; however, for thesake of clarity, this set of reads is not shown in FIG. 11.

Referring now to FIG. 11C, a related embodiment of the method will bedescribed. In this embodiment, the original genomic or metagenomicfragments 700, having been ligated to adaptors 710, 712, are amplifiedwith a first PCR primer that corresponds to tag adaptor 710 and a secondPCR primer that corresponds to tag adaptor 712 to produce amplicons 748that are competent for Illumina® paired-end sequencing. The first PCRprimer includes the flowcell compatibility component of the standardIllumina® paired-end forward adaptor sequence at the 5′ end, and thesecond primer includes the flowcell compatibility component of thestandard Illumina® paired-end reverse adaptor sequence at the 5′ end.Illumina® paired-end sequencing is performed to identify pairs of tagreads 730, 732 that are derived from opposite ends of the same originalfragment 748. Two groups of shotgun reads 742 and 744, obtained asdescribed above (FIG. 11B(i)), which are defined by distinct tag reads730 and 732, respectively, are merged based on tag-pairing informationand together subjected to phrap assembly to generate on or moresubassembled reads 752. A representative embodiment of this aspect ofthe invention is described in Examples 3 and 4.

In another aspect, the invention provides kits for preparing a DNAsequencing library. In one embodiment, the kit comprises a mixture ofdouble-stranded, partially degenerate adaptor molecules, wherein eachadaptor molecule comprises a first defined sequence P1, a sequence tagthat is fully or partially degenerate within the mixture of adaptormolecules, and a second defined sequence P2. In one embodiment of thekit, the degenerate sequence tag in the adaptor molecule comprises from5 to 50 randomly selected nucleotides.

In one embodiment, the adaptor molecule provided by the kit comprises aP1 sequence that contains a restriction enzyme recognition site RE1, anda P2 sequence that contains a restriction enzyme recognition site RE2.In another embodiment, the adaptor molecule provided by the kit furthercomprises a deoxythymidine base at the 3′ end.

In some embodiments, the kit also comprises at least one of (a) reagentssufficient for the end-repair and A-tailing of double-stranded DNAmolecules, including a thermostable DNA polymerase, an appropriatebuffer, and dATP; (b) reagents sufficient to perform isothermal rollingcircle amplification and/or multiple displacement amplification,including a strand displacing polymerase, an appropriate buffer;deoxynucleotides, primers complementary to 1 and P2, and randomhexamers; (c) reagents sufficient to fragment circular double-strandedDNA molecules, or a nebulizer; (d) a double-stranded adaptoroligonucleotide P3; (e) reagents sufficient to perform PCR amplificationof double-stranded DNA, including a thermostable DNA polymerase, anappropriate buffer, deoxynucleotides, and primers complementary to P1,P2 and P3; and (g) instructions for using the kit to perform the methodsof Claims 1 and 23.

In one embodiment of the kit, a strand displacing enzyme is phi29 DNApolymerase.

In another embodiment, the kit contains a first bridging oligonucleotideBR1 that comprises sequences complementary to RE1 digested P1 sequenceand sequence complementary to at least a portion of P3. In oneembodiment, the kit contains a second bridging oligonucleotide BR2 thatcomprises sequences complementary to RE2 digested P2 sequence andsequence complementary to at least a portion of P3.

In one embodiment, the kit provides primers that are complementary tothe sense and antisense strands of P1, P2, and P3.

In one embodiment, the kit also provides an adaptor P3 molecule tailedwith a deoxythymidine at the 3′ ends.

In one embodiment, the kit provides a double-stranded oligonucleotidecomprising a defined sequence P4, and primers complementary thereto.

In another embodiment, the invention provides a kit for preparing a DNAsequencing library, the kit comprising a cloning vector comprisingrestriction enzyme recognition sites that flank the insert cloning site,wherein the restriction enzymes recognition sites are oriented such thatthe cognate restriction enzymes digest the insert DNA, thereby leavingan end portion of the insert sequence attached to the vector sequenceafter digestion. In one embodiment, the vector comprises Type IIsrestriction enzyme recognition sites.

In another embodiment, the invention provides a kit for preparing a DNAsequencing library, the kit comprising at least one of a plurality offirst adaptor molecules, wherein the adaptor molecules may have the sameor different sequences. In one embodiment, the first adaptor molecule isa tag adaptor molecule comprising a nucleic acid sequence. In someembodiments, the kit further comprises at least one of a plurality ofsecond adaptor molecules. In one embodiment, the second adaptor moleculeis a shotgun adaptor molecule comprising a nucleic acid sequence,wherein the shotgun adaptor sequence is different from the tag adaptorsequence. In one embodiment, the kit further comprises oligonucleotidesthat include sequence complementary to the first or second adaptormolecules and sequence compatible with Illumina® flowcell sequencingtechnology.

Examples are provided below to further illustrate different features andadvantages of the present invention. The examples also illustrate usefulmethodology for practicing the invention. These examples should not beconstrued to limit the claimed invention.

Example 1

This example shows that 46 bp short reads can be correctly subassembledinto contiguous sequences greater than 1,000 bp in length using themethods of the invention.

Human genomic DNA (approximately 900 bp fragments) were circularized toa partially degenerate, approximately 100 bp adaptor (P1-20N-P2), andsequencing libraries were generated as described above. P1/P3 and P2/P3amplicons (each split to two size ranges by gel purification) weresequenced separately, with two reads generated per amplicon (a “readpair”). One sequence read is a 46 bp “shotgun” short read, and the othersequence read is a 20 bp tag sequence. A total of −5.6 million readpairs were generated for P1/P3 amplicons and ˜10.0 million read pairsfor P2/P3 amplicons. For each set of amplicons, shotgun short reads weregrouped into clusters based on having an identical or nearly identical(i.e. allowing for sequencing errors) tag sequence.

A total of 4,542 clusters representing a total of 1,001,462 shotgunreads (46 bp) were individually subjected to subassembly (averagecluster size=220; range=64 to 1024). Short reads that were part of acluster with less than 64 members (approximately 1.9 million reads) ormore than 1,024 members (approximately 12.7 million reads) were excludedfrom further analysis. Shotgun 46 bp reads within each cluster wereassembled using the phrap algorithm, as described in Ewing, B., andGreen, P., “Base-Calling of Automated Sequencer Traces Using Phred. II.Error Probabilities,” Genome Res. 8 (3):186-94, (1998), with parametersset to favor agglomeration despite relatively minimal overlap. For eachcluster, phrap may yield multiple subassemblies if all reads cannot beagglomerated. A total of 11,716 subassemblies resulted, each of whichwas derived from 2 or more shotgun reads (i.e., a given cluster mightyield more than one subassembly). The mean size of these 11,716 contigswas 175 bp (standard deviation=174 bp). Subsequent analysis was aimed atvalidating the accuracy of these subassemblies and focused on thelongest subassembled sequence derived from each cluster of associatedshotgun reads (this set of longest subassemblies from each cluster ishereafter referred to as the “contigs”). The mean size of these 4,542contigs was 314 bp (standard deviation=208 bp).

To evaluate the quality of these subassembled contigs, individualcontigs were mapped to the human genomic sequence in the NCBI GenBankdatabase using the BLAST algorithm. Specifically, the alignments of 10of the longest contigs were subjected to manual review. Excluding vectorsequence (i.e., the approximately 100 bp P1-20N-P2 adaptor sequence),these subassemblies aligned to human genomic sequence over lengthsranging from 787 bp to 1041 bp. Eight of the 10 alignments demonstratedthat “closure” had been achieved, meaning that the subassembled contigdefined a full circular sequence that included both the full adaptor andthe full approximately 900 bp human genomic DNA fragment. Eight of the10 alignments were nearly identical to the human genomic sequence in thedatabase (>99% identity). The overall nucleotide identity across these 8alignments was 7,392 out of 7,411 (99.74%). The differences likelyreflect a mixture of true polymorphisms and consensus sequence errors.This accuracy was significantly greater than the mean accuracy for the“raw” 46 bp sequence reads and reflects the consensus of overlappingreads in the subassembly. Two of the sequences were more divergent fromhuman genomic sequences in the database (96.1%; 98.2%) but still definedlong subassembly read-lengths (787 bp and 905 bp). However, both ofthese contigs clearly represent alpha-satellite sequence and theincreased divergence rate likely reflects true variation rather than anincreased error rate.

Most importantly, for the set of 10 contigs that were analyzed indetail, there were no detected errors in terms of the correctness of thesubassemblies across alignment lengths of 787 bp to 1041 bp. Theseresults validate the methods of the present invention. The primaryshortcoming of this aspect of the method relates to the overly widedistribution with which each kilobase-scale fragment is sampled withshort reads. The overly wide distribution results from non-uniformamplification of the circularized fragment-adaptor pairings by themultiple displacement amplification reaction. Nevertheless, this exampledemonstrates that 46 bp reads can accurately be “subassembled” intocontiguous sequences greater than 1,000 bp in length by applying themethods of the present invention.

Example 2

This example describes the association of sequences based on sequencetags derived from either end of a target DNA fragment. The strategydescribed in this embodiment is referred to as “keystone” generation andsequencing.

Methods:

Preparation of Genomic DNA Fragments

Genomic DNA from the organism Pseudomonas aeruginosa was mechanicallysheared by nebulization. Sheared genomic DNA was size-selected on apolyacrylamide gel to a specific size-range. Most of the size-selectedgenomic DNA falls in the 1,200-2,000 bp range, although a long-tailsmear of additional material shorter than 1,200 bp was also visible whena lower concentration of sheared genomic DNA was loaded on the gel.Sheared, size-selected genomic DNA was end-repaired (Epicentre®End-It™Repair Kit ERK-70823).

Preparation of a Modified Cloning Vector for the Keystone Strategy.

A modified version of the puc19 vector was generated that included,within the location of the multiple cloning site, an additional segmentof DNA that consists of an EcoRV restriction enzyme recognition siteflanked by type IIs restriction enzyme recognition sites for BsgI andBtgZ1, oriented towards the EcoRV site. The modified vector, referred toherein as a keystone vector, was cloned into E. coli and recovered viaplasmid purification (Qiagen). The vector was linearized by digestionwith EcoRV to yield blunt ends. The blunt ends were dephosphorylatedwith Alkaline Phosphatase (CIP).

Cloning of Genomic DNA Fragments into the Modified Vector.

The end-repaired genomic DNA fragments were blunt-end ligated into thelinearized vector (NEB® Quick Ligation™ Kit). The ligation mixture waspurified on silica spin columns (Qiagen) and transformed intoultracompetent cells (TOP10, Invitrogen) via electroporation. A complexculture with selective antibiotic was grown directly from theelectroporation rescue culture, and the complexity of the culture wasestimated to be approximately 4,000 unique transformants by plating asubset of the culture.

Preparation of a Recircularized Keystone Sequencing Library.

Plasmid DNA was isolated from the culture (Qiagen) and sequentiallydigested with the type IIs restriction enzymes BsgI and BtgZI (NEB). Theresulting material was end-repaired (Epicentre® End-It™—Repair Kit),recircularized (NEB® Quick Ligation™ Kit), and purified on silica spincolumns (Qiagen). PCR was performed using primers directed at thekeystone segment (i.e., the recircularization junction, which nowincludes genomic tags derived from BsgI and BtgZ1 digestion). Specificnon-vector sequences were appended to the 5′ ends of the PCR primers toadd sequences required for compatibility with the Illumina® platform.

Results:

Sequencing and Analysis of the Recircularized Keystone SequencingLibrary.

A single lane of sequencing of the resulting PCR products was performedwith the Illumina® Genome Analyzer using a custom sequencing primerdesigned to hybridize adjacent to and oriented towards therecircularization junction (expected to be flanked by the BsgI andBtgZ1-derived genomic tags). Approximately 6.2 million single-tagsequencing reads were obtained, with the sequencing reads of sufficientlength (28 bp) to cover the full length of both the BsgI and BtgZIderived tags (˜11 bp each). Each of these pairs of 11 bp sequencesconstituted a “keystone tag-pair.” To filter out noise (e.g., resultingfrom sequencing errors), further analysis was restricted to keystonetag-pairs that were observed at least 20 times within the full set ofdata.

To evaluate whether the keystone tag-pairs were derived from distancescorresponding to the expected size distribution, the reads were mappedback to the Pseudomonas aeruginosa reference genome. Reads were mappedif there was an exact match for each 11 bp tag. The distance between thelocations to which each pair of mapped tags was extracted. Whenindividual tags matched to more than one location in the referencegenome, all possible pairs of potential sites of origin were analyzedand the distance with the minimal distance separation was extracted.

FIG. 12 shows a histogram of the observed distance distribution betweenBsgI and BtgZI derived tags. The data show that there is a tightcorrespondence between the expected distribution (based on the sizes ofgenomic fragments used as starting material) and the observeddistribution of distances between BsgI and BtgZI derived tags (FIG. 12).As shown in FIG. 13, the correspondence between expectation andobservation is even greater when the data is corrected for the mass ofthe fragments size-selected on the gel (as opposed to using the molarityof the observed fragments shown in FIG. 12). Further, the total numberof observed keystone sequences (n=4,884) was close to the estimatedcomplexity of the library based on plating of a subset of thetransformation culture (n=4,000).

This example shows that the use of sequence tags derived from either endof genomic DNA fragments can be used to map the ends of isolatedfragments back to the reference genome. The method described in thisexample has utility when used with other embodiments of the inventiondescribed herein to generate subassemblies of kilobase-scale sized DNAfragments using short read sequencing platforms.

Example 3

This example shows that the methods of the invention are useful forgenerating long, accurate subassembled reads from short read sequencingplatforms.

Methods:

Library production can be performed in as few as three days, providedthat size-selections are performed without delay and that QIAquick®columns are used to purify DNA from the gel eluate (in place of ethanolprecipitation, which is slower and achieves similar yields).

1. Isolation of Source DNA

Genomic DNA was Obtained from Pseudomonas aeruginosa (PAO1).

Metagenomic source DNA was isolated from a microbial population obtainedfrom sediment 63 meters below the surface of Lake Washington andsubsequently enriched using Stable Isotope Probing for organisms thatutilized methylamine as a food source.

2. Fragmentation of Source DNA

Pseudomonas: ˜2 ug of genomic DNA was randomly fragmented usingnebulization. High molecular weight DNA was diluted to 50 μL in TEBuffer, pH 7.5-8 before being added to the 40% glycerol nebulizingsolution containing 325 ul EB and 375 μL 80% glycerol. The nebulizingmixture was pipetted to the bottom of the Invitrogen® Nebulizer(45-0072). The lid was tightly closed and wrapped with Parafilm®laboratory film to limit sample loss. Nebulizing was performed on icefor 15-90 seconds with 6 psi pressurized air. The sample mixture wasspun down using a slow centrifuge and the sample was collected bypipette. Repetitive centrifugation/collection was necessary to ensureadequate recovery. DNA was purified using QIAquick®columns and eluted in30 μL Buffer EB.

Metagenomic: ˜2 ug of metagenomic source DNA was randomly fragmentedusing a Bioruptore sonication system (Diagenode, New Jersey). Highmolecular weight DNA was placed in a 1.6 μL Eppendorf tube and dilutedto 300 μL in TE. The sample was sheared in the Bioruptor® sonicationsystem for 8×15 minute cycles, with 30-second sonication intervals athigh power. DNA was purified using QIAquick®columns (Qiagen 28106) andeluted in 30 μL Buffer EB.

3. End Repair

Fragmented template was end-repaired with the End-It™ DNA End Repair Kit(ERK-70823, Epicentre Biosciences) following the manufacturer'sdirections. The end-repaired mixture was purified and eluted in 30 μLBuffer EB using a QIAquick® column (Qiagen).

4. Size Selection

500-600 bp fragments (Pseudomonas) and 400-500 bp fragments(Metagenomic) of sheared DNA were selected by 6% TBE gel electrophoresisand recovered by ethanol precipitation.

5. A-Tailing

Terminal 3′ adenosines were added to size-selected DNA to allow ligationto the T-tailed adaptors. A-tailed DNA was purified by QIAquick® columnand eluted in 50 uL of Buffer EB.

6. Ligation to Adaptor

Table 1 shows the type, name, sequence, and SEQ ID NO. of theoligonucleotides used in this embodiment of the methods. 50 uM of customadaptors was prepared by mixing equal volumes of Ad1 (SEQ ID NO:1) withAd1_rc (SEQ ID NO:2) and Ad2 (SEQ ID NO:3) with Ad2_rc (SEQ II) NO:4)(Table 1) (initially diluted to 100 uM), heating to 95° C., then turningoff the thermal cycler block and cooling passively to room temperature.

Genomic fragments were quantified using a Qubit™ fluorometer(Invitrogen, Q32857) and the Quant-IT™ dsDNA HS kit (Invitrogen,Q32854). Fragments were ligated to adaptors using the Quick Ligation™Kit (NEB, M2200) at a molar ratio of 1:10 as follows:

Pseudomonas Metagenomic Genomic fragments 13 uL (~1 ng/uL = 13 uL (0.25ng/uL + 36 fm) 9.1 fm) Annealed adaptor 1.44 uL (500 nM = 1.8 uL (100 nM= 720 fm) 80 fm) dH2O 0.56 uL 0.2 uL Quick Ligation   15 uL  15 uLbuffer (2x) Quick Ligase  1.5 uL 1.5 uL

All components were mixed by brief vortexing and centrifugation. Thereaction was carried out at room temperature for 15 minutes and storedon ice.

7. Size Selection

To remove excess unligated adapter, 400-800 bp fragments of ligated DNAwere selected by 6% TBE gel electrophoresis and recovered by ethanolprecipitation.

8.a. PCR Amplification

To impose a complexity bottleneck and generate multiple copies ofgenomic fragments, quantitative real-time PCR amplification wasperformed using Phusion®Hot-Start polymerase (Finnzymes, F-540S) andSYBR® Green (Invitrogen, S-7563) in a MiniOpticon™ thermal cycler(Bio-Rad). Five-prime phosphorylated primers and the Pfu polymerase wereused to facilitate concatemerization in the next step.

Complexity was limited by serially diluting the DNA recovered from sizeselection. For the Pseudomonas sample, undiluted, 10-fold, and 100-folddiluted samples were subjected to PCR. Amplification of the 100-folddilution was split across ten reactions, each containing a 1,000-folddilution, to improve yield. Because of the lower concentration of theMetagenomic sample during ligation, PCR was performed with both 1 uL (+9uL H2O, “1×”) and 10 uL (“10×”) of the adaptor-ligated, size-selectedfragments. A given dilution was chosen for further processing based onan assessment of the gel. In general, the least complex sample that didnot demonstrate banding on the gel was chosen. Alternatively, asequencing library can be produced as in 8.d. (below) and sequenced onone lane of a standard paired-end 36 bp to estimate complexity.

Care was taken to ensure that reactions were removed from the thermalcycler prior to the completion of log-phase amplification, since“over-amplification” results in aberrantly slow gel migration of smallfragments that will contaminate downstream size-selections.

The components of the PCR reactions for each sample were as follows:

Pseudomonas Metagenomic (uL) (uL) Template 1 10 Phusion HF Buffer (5x)10 10 dNTPs (25 mM) 0.4 0.4 SYBR Green I (1x) 5 5 Ad1_amp (SEQ ID NO: 5)(10 uM) 2.5 2.5 Ad2_amp (SEQ ID NO: 6) (10 uM) 2.5 2.5 dH2O 28.1 19.1Phusion Hot-Start polymerase 0.5 0.5

All components were mixed by brief vortexing and centrifugation. Thermalcycling in a MINIOPTICON™ thermal cycler (Bio-Rad) was performed asfollows:

1. 98° C. for 30 sec

2. 98° C. for 10 sec

3. 60° C. for 30 sec

4. 72° C. for 50 sec

5. Plate Read

6. 72° C. for 10 sec

7. Go to 2, 24 times

8. 72° C. for 5 mins

9. Hold 16° C.

Reactions were removed from the cycler as soon as log phaseamplification appeared to be ending. Reactions were stored at 4° C. PCRreactions were purified by QIAquick® column and eluted in 30 uL ofBuffer EB. For the 100-fold dilution sample, reactions were pooled priorto purification.

8.b. Size Selection of Metagenomic PCR Products

Because of length heterogeneity in the PCR products of the Metagenomiclibrary and to maintain a long population of fragments, the purified PCRproducts were again size-selected from 400-600 bp as described above,then amplified as in step 8.a. (above).

To produce sufficient material to avoid a complexity bottleneck insubsequent steps, 1 uL (Pseudomonas) or 10 uL (Metagenomic) of the abovePCR product (after step 8.b. for the Metagenomic sample) was splitacross 8 PCR reactions and amplified again as above, then pooled andpurified as above.

8.c. PCR of Bottlenecked Fragment Library for Paired-End Sequencing

To enable pairing of TDRGs from opposite ends of the same originalfragment, Metagenomic PCR products from step 8.b. were amplified witholigos that encoded compatibility with the Illumina® flowcell, usingiProof™ HF Master Mix (Bio-Rad #172-5311) in a MINIOPTICON™ thermalcycler (Bio-Rad) as below:

Metagenomic (uL) Template 1 SYBR Green I (1x) 5 Illum_amp_f_Ad1 (SEQ IDNO: 7) (10 uM) 2.5 Illum_amp_r_Ad2 (SEQ ID NO: 8) (10 uM) 2.5 dH2O 14iProof ™ HF master mix (2x) 25

All components were mixed by brief vortexing and centrifugation. Thermalcycling was performed as follows:

1. 98° C., 30 sec

2. 98° C., 10 sec

3. 58° C., 15 sec

4. 72° C., 15 sec

5. Plate Read

6. 72° C., 5 sec

7. Go to 2, 29 times

8. 72° C., 10 mins

9. Hold 16° C.

Sequencing of the TDRG merging library was performed on an Illumina®GA-II with 36 bp paired-end reads according to manufacturer'sspecifications, except that the following oligos were used: Ad1_seq (SEQID NO:9) for the first read and Ad2_seq (SEQ ID NO: 10) for the secondread.

9. Blunt Ligation of PCR Products

To generate high molecular weight concatemers of PCR products, bluntligation was performed using the Quick Ligation Kit (NEB, M2200).Reaction components were mixed by brief vortexing and centrifugation,the reaction was carried out at room temperature for 15 minutes, andthen stored at 4° C.

10. Fragmentation of High Molecular Weight Concatemers

PCR product ligations were randomly fragmented using the Bioruptor, asdescribed above.

11. End Repair

Fragmented template was end-repaired with the Epicentre BiosciencesEnd-It DNA End Repair Kit as described above. The end-repaired mixturewas purified and eluted in 30 μL Buffer EB by QIAGEN® QIAquick® column.

12. A-Tailing

Terminal 3′ adenosines were added to end repaired DNA as described aboveto allow ligation to the T-tailed adaptors. A-tailed DNA was purified byQIAquick® column and eluted in 50 uL of Buffer EB.

13. Ligation to Illumina® Adaptor

50 uM adaptors were prepared by mixing equal volumes of Illum_rev (SEQID NO: 11) and Illum_rev_rc (SEQ ID NO:12) (initially diluted to 100uM), heating to 95° C., then turning off the thermal cycler block andcooling passively to room temperature.

Fragments were quantified using a Qubit fluorometer (Invitrogen, Q32857)and the Quant-IT dsDNA HS kit (Invitrogen, Q32854). Fragments derivedfrom the Pseudomonas PCR were quantified at 20 femtomoles/microliter;A-tailed Metagenomic fragments were quantified at 9femtomoles/microliter. Fragments were ligated to the Illumina® reverseadaptors (SEQ ID NOs: 11, 12) using the Quick Ligation Kit (NEB, M2200)at a molar ratio of 1:20 as follows:

Pseudomonas Metagenomic Template 10 uL 11 uL Adaptor 1.14 uL (@ 5 uM) 4uL (@ 500 nM) Quick Ligation Buffer (2x) 15 uL 15 uL dH2O 1.16 uL   0Quick Ligase 1.5 uL  1.5 uL 

All components were mixed by brief vortexing and centrifugation. Thereaction was carried out at room temperature for 15 minutes. Thereaction was stored on ice. Ligated DNA was purified by QiaQuick® columnand eluted in 30 uL of Buffer EB.

14. PCR Amplification

To prepare molecules for Illumina® paired-end sequencing,adaptor-ligated DNA was subjected to real-time quantitative PCRamplification using Phusion® Hot-Start polymerase (Finnzymes, F-540S)and SYBR Green (Invitrogen, S-7563) in a Bio-Rad® MiniOpticon™ thermalcycler. Each sample was amplified in two separate reactions usingdifferent pairs of primers to enable amplification of fragmentscontaining sequence from each end of the original fragment.

After amplification, size-selection and PCR was performed to enrich forfragments that contained a random break-point at least 150-300 bp distalto the tag read, as shorter fragments will outcompete for clusterformation on the flowcell and dominate sequencing. For this reason,real-time monitoring of amplification is essential to preventoveramplification, which results in aberrant migration of the PCRproducts on the gel and interferes with downstream size-selection. Careshould be taken to ensure that PCR is stopped while the reaction isstill in log phase.

The first primer in the mixture below was always Illum_amp_r (SEQ IDNO:13), while the second primer was Illum_amp_f_Ad1 (SEQ ID NO:7) in onereaction and Illum_amp_f_Ad2 (SEQ ID NO: 14) in the other. Fourreactions were performed for each primer combination, using in total 10uL of the 30 uL eluate from the adaptor ligation.

Pseudomonas Metagenomic (uL) (uL) Template 1.25 1.25 Phusion HF Buffer(5x → 1x) 10 10 dNTPs (25 mM → 200 uM) 0.4 0.4 SYBR Green I 5 (1X = 0.1X2.5 (10X = 0.5X final) final) Illum_amp_r (SEQ ID NO: 13) 2.5 2.5 (10uM) Illum_amp_f_Ad* (SEQ ID NO: 7 2.5 2.5 or 14)(10 uM) dH2O 27.85 30.35Phusion ® Hot-Start polymerase 0.5 0.5

All components were mixed by brief vortexing and centrifugation. Thermalcycling was performed as follows:

1. 98° C., 30 sec

2. 98° C., 10 sec

3. 58° C., 15 sec

4. 72° C., 50 sec

5. Plate Read

6. 72° C., 15 sec

7. Go to 2, 39 times

Reactions were removed from the cycler as soon as log phaseamplification appeared to be proceeding robustly. Reactions were storedat 4° C. PCR reactions were purified by QIAquick®column and eluted in 30uL of Buffer EB.

15. Size Selection

Amplified template was size-selected to ranges of 450-600 bp(Pseudomonas) and 300-450 bp (Metagenomic) as described above. As shownin FIG. 14, removal of short fragments improves cluster formationuniformity on the flowcell and improves the distribution of reads acrossthe original fragments.

Following size-selection, a final PCR was performed as below to obtainadequate material for Illumina® paired-end sequencing.

Pseudomonas Metagenomic (uL) (uL) Template 5 10 Phusion HF Buffer (5x →1x) 10 10 dNTPs (25 mM → 200 uM) 0.4 0.4 SYBR Green I (10x → 0.5x) 2.52.5 Illum_amp_r (SEQ ID NO: 13) 2.5 2.5 (10 uM) Ilum_amp_f_Ad* (SEQ IDNO: 7 2.5 2.5 or 14) (10 uM) dH2O 26.6 21.4 Phusion Hot-Start polymerase0.5 0.5

Thermal Cycling and Purification of PCR Reactions Was Performed asAbove.

16. Illumina® Sequencing

After PCR and QIAquick® cleanup, amplicons from the desired size range(450-600 bp for Pseudomonas, 300-450 bp for Metagenomic) were subjectedto paired-end Illumina®sequencing according to manufacturer'sspecifications for a 20 bp first read and a 76 bp second read using thefollowing sequencing oligos: Ad1_seq (SEQ ID NO:9) and Ad2_seq (SEQ IDNO:10) on the first read and Illum_seq_r (SEQ ID NO: 15) on the secondread.

Computational Methods:

Organizing Shotgun Short Reads into Tag-Defined Read Groups (TDRGs):

For all experiments, shotgun reads paired with identical or nearlyidentical tag sequences were grouped into TDRGs. Since millions of tagreads were involved, an all-against-all comparison to cluster similartags was not feasible. Instead, a two-step strategy was used to grouptag sequences within each experiment. First, perfectly identical tagswere collapsed using a simple hash to define a non-redundant set ofclusters. From this set, clusters with 4 or more identical tags wereidentified as “core” clusters and, in descending order by size, werecompared to all other tags. Tags matching a given core cluster with upto 1 mismatch were grouped with that core cluster (and removed fromfurther consideration if they themselves defined a smaller corecluster). TDRGs with more than 1,000 members were excluded fromdownstream analysis to limit analysis of adaptors or otherlow-complexity sequence.

Subassembly of TDRGs:

Each TDRG was assembled separately using phrap with the followingparameters:

-   -   -vector_bound 0-forcelevel 1-minscore 12-minmatch        10-indexwordsize 8

Pre-grouping reads into TDRGs allowed us to use less stringentparameters than the defaults used in traditional assemblies. Parameterswere optimized to balance SA read length and accuracy (Table 2). A shortread assembler, Velvet (D. Zerbino and E. Birney, Genome Res.18:821-829, 2008), was also tested but did not produce significant gainsin SA read length relative to phrap (data not shown).

Filtering and Adaptor-Trimming of SA READs:

SA reads were processed to remove adaptor sequence using the cross_matchprogram provided as part of the phrap suite, using the followingparameters:

-   -   -minmatch 5-minscore 14-screen

The masked regions of the SA reads were then trimmed to retain thelongest continuous stretch of unmasked sequence.

In all subsequent analyses, only SA reads that were at least 77 bp inlength and were assembled from identically oriented short reads wereconsidered. (NOTE: The read orientation filter is only applicable to SAreads from individual, un-merged TDRGs.) In addition, for length andquality analyses, only the longest SA read from each TDRG was analyzed.

Quality Assessment

Adaptor-trimmed SA reads were aligned to the P. aeruginosa PAO1reference genome using BLAST with the following parameters:

-   -   -p blastn-e 0.001-m 8-F F

To analyze error rate as a function of base quality, a method wasdeveloped to estimate SA read base call quality. Although phrap doesincorporate quality scores from the Illumina® basecaller and producesquality scores for the resulting consensus assembled bases, thebase-call quality method makes use of tools designed specifically forshort, error-laden reads. A representative subset of ˜100,000 TDRGs waschosen from the Pseudomonas dataset. For each TDRG, the short readalignment tool maq was used to align short reads to the longest SA readin the TDRG (provided that the longest SA read was longer than 76 bp andwas assembled with identically oriented reads). A consensus sequenceincluding quality values was generated by maq (if the consensus basecall differed from the base call made by phrap, a quality of 0 wasassigned), and SA read bases were then compared to the reference genometo determine the relationship between base quality and error rate. BLASTcoordinates of the SA read were used to define the correspondingsequence in the reference genome to which each SA read should becompared and only the component of the SA read that aligned to thereference by BLAST was compared. 35,581 SA reads from the 100,000 TDRGsthat were at least 77 bp in length were assembled from identicallyoriented reads. After maq mapping, 10,853,823 bp of consensus sequencewas obtained. Removing bases that were not aligned to the reference byBLAST and ignoring SA reads that were predicted to contain indelsreduced the total number of bases by 1.8%, to 10,657,113 bp. Finally,the first and last 5 bp of the BLASTing portion of each SA read wasignored because those bases were essentially constrained by BLAST to becorrect and would artificially decrease the observed error rate.

To analyze quality as a function of raw read base quality, maq was usedto align reads to the reference, Illumina® base calls were compared tothe reference and, for a randomly chosen subset of 1 million bases, theerror rate as a function of Illumina® base call quality was determined.

To analyze quality as a function of SA read position, the samerepresentative subset of SA reads from ˜100,000 TDRGs was aligned to thereference using BLAST as above and the base calls at each position ofthe SA read were compared to the reference. Once again, analysis wasrestricted to SA reads that were at least 77 bp in length, assembledfrom identically oriented reads, aligned to the reference genome, andwere not predicted to contain indels. As above, the first and last 5 bpof sequence was trimmed to prevent artificial suppression of errorrates. Only those positions containing at least 1,000 members wereplotted. Finally, positions were binned into groups of three for displaypurposes.

To analyze quality as a function of raw read position, a representativelane of reads used for the subassembly process was aligned to thereference genome using maq and the error rate at each position wasdetermined by comparing read base calls to reference bases for eachread.

TDRG Merging Algorithm:

Paired 36 bp reads were obtained from a sequencing library prepared frombottlenecked, adaptor-ligated metagenomic fragments as described in theSupplementary Experimental Methods, then trimmed computationally to 20bp to correspond to the length of the tag reads that were obtainedduring sequencing of the subassembly libraries.

To prevent sequencing errors at the ends of the reads from creatingspurious tags and tag-pairs, the reads were trimmed further to the first15 bp. TDRG pairs were defined in descending order of tag-pairabundance, and tags previously assigned to TDRG pairs were removed.

Velvet Assembly of Shotgun Metagenomic Library:

Paired 36 bp reads were first subjected to Velvet assembly using thefollowing parameters:

-   -   -exp_cov 20-cov_cutoff 2-ins_length 250

Resulting scaffolds were then split into contigs that did not containN's, because it was reasoned that the performance of important effortslike gene discovery and phylogenetic classification would depend solelyon the length of contiguous regions of defined bases.

To optimize the length of contigs produced by Velvet, a histogram ofcoverage was generated and Velvet was run again with the same input dataand using the following parameters:

-   -   -exp_cov 28-cov_cutoff 20-ins_length 250

Imposing a higher minimum coverage cutoff reduces the noise of theassembly process, allowing the assembler to extend paths moreconfidently and produce longer contigs. However, it is possible thatthis higher cutoff may discard reads from more rare sequences in thesample, thereby artificially collapsing sample diversity.

To allow a more direct comparison to a phrap assembly of SA reads, allcontigs produced by Velvet with the more inclusive parameter set(-cov_cutoff 2) were subjected to phrap assembly with the followingparameters:

-   -   -vector_bound 0-default_qual 30

Phrap Assembly of Metagenomic SA Reads:

All SA reads from the metagenomic sample, including SA reads from bothunmerged and merged TDRGs that were longer than 76 bp and assembled fromproperly oriented reads (unmerged only), were pooled and subjected to anadditional round of phrap with the following parameters:

-   -   -vector_bound 0-default_qual 30

Comparison to Sanger Data With Blast and Maq

Contigs produced from SA reads via phrap and contigs produced fromshotgun short reads via phrap and Velvet were aligned to one another andto the recently collected Sanger data from the same sample (JGI IMG/MTaxon Object ID 2006207002, NCBI accession number ABSR01000000) usingBLAST with the following parameters:

-   -   -p blastn-e 1e-6-m 8-F F

Two bases were considered to be a shared position between two datasetsif they were contained in a BLAST alignment at least 100 bp long andwith at least 98% identity, and only if the two bases were in the BLASTalignment with the highest bitscore of all the BLAST alignments betweenthe two datasets involving either base.

To define the potential coverage present in the sequencing library, 76bp reads collected for subassembly (the second read in the tag-shotgunread-pair) and paired-end 36 bp reads collected for Velvet assembly werealigned to the Sanger data using the short-read alignment tool maq withdefault parameters and the pileup function was used to determinecoverage.

TABLE 1 Sequences of Oligonucleotides Used in aRepresentative Embodiment of the Methods.* SEQ Type Name Sequence ID NO:Bottleneck Ad1 TCGCAATACAGAGTTTACCGCATT 1 adaptor Ad1_rc/5Phos/ATGCGGTAAACTCTGTATTGCGA 2 oligos Ad2 CTCTTCCGCATCTCACAACCTACT 3Ad2_rc /5phos/GTAGGTTGTGAGATGCGGAAGAG 4 Bottleneck Ad1_amp/5phos/TCGCAATACAGAGTTTACCGCATT 5 PCR primers Ad2_amp/5phos/CTCTTCCGCATCTCACAACCTACT 6 Sequencing Illum_amp_AATGATACGGCGACCACCGAGATCTACACCAATGGAGCTCGC 7 PCR primers f_Ad1AATACAGAGTTTACCGCATT Illum_amp_AATGATACGGCGACCACCGAGATCTATCGAGAGCCTCTTCCG 14 f_Ad2 CATCTCACAACCTACTIllum_amp_r CAAGCAGAAGACGGCATACGAGATCGGTCTCGGCATTCCTGC 13TGAACCGCTCTTCCGATCT TDRG Illum_amp_CAAGCAGAAGACGGCATACGAGATATCGAGAGCCTCTTCCGC 8 merging r_Ad2ATCTCACAACCTACT PCR primer Sequencing Ad1_seqCAATGGAGCTCGCAATACAGAGTTTACCGCATT 9 oligos Ad2_seqATCGAGAGCCTCTTCCGCATCTCACAACCTACT 10 Illum_seq_rCGGTCTCGGCATTCCTGCTGAACCGCTCTTCCGATCT 15 Illumina® Illum_revCTCGGCATTCCTGCTGAACCGCTCTTCCGATC*T 11 adaptor Illum_rev_rc/5Phos/GATCGGAAGAGCGGTTCAGCAGGAATGCCGAG 12 oligos *Oligos were obtainedfrom Integrated DNA Technologies. An asterisk indicates aphosphorothioate bond. /5Phos/ indicates a five-prime phosphatemodification.

Results:

P. aeruginosa (PAO1) genomic DNA was randomly fragmented andsize-selected to ˜550 bp. The size selected genomic fragments weresubjected to the methods described in FIGS. 11A and 11B. An Illumina®Genome Analyzer II was used to generate 56.8 million (M) read-pairs (20tag read+76 shotgun read). As shown in Table 2, read pairs were groupedinto Tag-Defined Read-Groups (TDRGs) by the 20 bp tag (allowing for 1mismatch) and the 76 bp shotgun reads within each TDRG were separatelysubjected to local assembly with phrap, using parameters that favoredagglomeration even with relatively minimal overlap.

TABLE 2 Phrap optimization of Pseudomonas TDRGs* Fraction of Fraction ofFraction of SA's mismatches Index Mean Median non- BLASTing among MinMin Force word # of longest longest BLASTing <90% of BLASTing matchscore level size TDRGs SA read SA read SA's length bases 12 12 1 10 2619361.6 403 0.004964 0.02993 0.001513 10 12 1 10 2619 364.4 406 0.0049640.0284 0.001543 10 12 1 8 2619 364.4 406 0.004964 0.0284 0.001543 10 101 8 2619 369.5 409 0.004964 0.04106 0.001551 8 10 1 8 2619 371.9 4110.004964 0.04643 0.001579 *A representative subset of 10,000 PseudomonasTDRGs was randomly selected and subjected to phrap assembly usingdifferent parameters and the resulting lengths and qualities of thelongest subassemblies from each TDRG were assessed. The parameters ofminmatch 10, minscore 12, force level 1, and index word size 8 achievedthe optimal balance between assembly accuracy, measured as the fractionof subassembled reads BLASTing across at least 90% of their length in asingle BLAST hit (and the fraction removed because of oppositelyoriented reads, not shown here), and subassembled read length.

Subsequent analyses retained only the longest subassembled read (“SAread”) from TDRGs with at least 10 members. Subassembled reads wereexpected to be derived from identically oriented shotgun reads, andthose that were not (1.7%) were discarded. Furthermore, TDRGs thatfailed subassembly entirely (an additional 0.35%) were also discarded.

As shown in FIG. 15 and Table 3, the above analysis resulted in 1.03 MSA reads, with a median length of 346 bp and an N50 of 418 bp.

TABLE 3 Summary Statistics for Subassembled Reads.* Original # of # ofMedian Longest fragment read- filtered length SA read Sample size (bp)pairs TDRGs (bp) N50 (bp) (bp) P. aeruginosa ~550 56.8M 1,029,313 346418 916 Metagenomic ~450 21.8M 263,040 259 280 649 Metagenomic ~45021.8M + 1.8M 139,636 413 432 742 (merged) (69,818 pairs) *For the twosamples used and the two analyses performed of the methylamine-enrichedmetagenomic sample, Table 3 shows the original genomic or metagenomicfragment size in bp, the number of Illumina ® read-pairs that were usedto generate subassembled (SA) reads (merged analysis also shows thenumber of reads used to pair tags), the number of TDRGs after filteringfor successful assembly and properly oriented contributing reads, themedian length of the longest SA read from each filtered TDRG, the N50 orlength of the longest SA read from each filtered TDRG such that 50% ofthe base pairs contained in all of the longest SA reads are in SA readsat least as long as the N50, and the longest SA read overall.

As shown in FIG. 14, a bimodal distribution of SA read length wasobserved, which is likely due to uneven coverage of the originalfragment by the nested library, especially in TDRGs with fewerread-pairs. The longest SA read was 916 bp, likely an outlier from thegel-based size-selection but nonetheless an indicator of methodpotential. To assess quality, the SA reads were mapped to the PAO1reference (C. K. Stover, X. Q. Pham, A. Erwin et al., Nature406(6799):959 (2000)). This analysis showed that 99.84% had significantalignments with BLAST (S. F. Altschul, T. L. Madden, A. A. Schaffer etal., Nucleic Acid Res. 25 (17):3389 (1997)). Notably, the substitutionerror rate within alignments was 0.197% (Phred Q27), while the rawIllumina® shotgun reads had an error rate of 2.4% (Phred Q16). Tofurther characterize the distribution of base qualities, quality scoresfor individual bases within SA reads were calculated using the qualityscores of the contributing shotgun reads (H. Li, J. Ruan, and R. Durbin,Genome Res. (2008). As shown in FIG. 16, the 80% of bases in SA readswith the highest estimated quality scores were 99.99% accurate (PhredQ40) with respect to substitution errors when compared to the PAO1reference. Finally, the substitution error rate as a function ofposition along the SA read was calculated. Importantly, as shown in FIG.17, the low overall error rate of 1 per 500 bp was maintained forhundreds of bases in the SA reads, but quickly decayed within the muchshorter shotgun reads.

Example 4

This example demonstrates that the subassembly method facilitatessignificant improvements in assembly of short read sequencing data frommetagenomic libraries to useful lengths.

The subassembly method was applied to a complex metagenomic samplecomprising total DNA isolated from a microbial community first obtainedfrom sediment 63 meters deep in Lake Washington (Seattle, Wash.) andsubsequently enriched for methylamine-fixing microbes (M. G.Kalyuzhnaya, A. Lapidus, N. Ivanova et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 26 (9):1029(2008)). As shown in FIG. 18, the length distribution of the metagenomiclibrary was about 450 bp. The same method described above in Example 3for Pseudomonas was applied to the metagenomic library sample having amore stringent complexity bottleneck. As shown in FIG. 19 and Table 3, atotal of 21.8 M read-pairs (20 bp tag read+76 bp shotgun read) wasobtained resulting in 263,024 SA reads where the median length was 259bp, the N50 was 280 bp, and the longest SA read was 649 bp.

As shown in FIG. 11C, in addition to the nested shotgun reads that wereused to produce SA reads, 1.8 M paired-end reads from the originallong-fragment library (2×20 bp) were obtained, which allowed TDRGs whosetags were observed as a read-pair to be merged. Approximately 52% of themetagenomic TDRGs were merged in this fashion and shotgun reads fromboth TDRGs were together subjected to assembly. As shown in FIG. 19 andTable 3, SA reads from merged pairs of TDRGs (taking only the longestcontiguous read) had a median length of 413 bp and an N50 of 432 bp, andthe longest SA read was 742 bp.

Tag-directed, local assembly of short reads may circumvent manychallenges associated with de novo assembly of short reads, especiallyin the context of metagenomics, where the relative representation oforganisms is highly non-uniform. Therefore, a standard Illumina® shotgunpaired-end library from the same metagenomic DNA sample was generated.Because phrap cannot be used to directly assemble millions of shortreads, the shotgun reads (36 bp×2) were assembled using Velvet, apopular short-read assembler (D. R. Zerbino and E. Birney, Genome Res.18 (5):821 (2008)) (Table 4). To perform the most direct comparisonpossible, a total of 2.2 Gb of shotgun sequence data was used, which wasequal in total bases to the full amount of data collected and used withthe subassembly approach. To optimize contig length, the Velvetassembler was run using parameters that are likely to favor assembly ofhighly represented sequences at the expense of more rare sequences.Indeed, longer contigs were produced at the expense of totalnon-redundant sequence. As shown in Table 4, when contigs produced byVelvet were also subjected to the more inclusive parameters toadditional assembly using phrap, only minimal additional assembly wasproduced. This result suggests that any observed differences in assemblywere not the result of using different assemblers.

Direct assembly of shotgun short reads with Velvet and phrap generated7.2 Mb of sequence (min. 100 bp) with an N50 of 221 bp. By comparison,phrap assembly of all SA reads that met length and orientation filtersgenerated considerably more total sequence data in longer contigs,producing 35.7 Mb of sequence with N50 of 482 bp (Table 4). As shown inFIG. 20, when compared to assembly of shotgun reads by Velvet and phrap,assembly of SA reads generated 10.7 times as many total base-pairs ofsequence in contigs at least 500 bp long and 11.1 times as many totalbase-pairs of sequence in contigs at least 1 kb long.

TABLE 4 Summary Statistics From Assembly of Metagenomic SA Reads VersusAssembly of a Standard Shotgun Library.* Assembly # of Input strategycontigs N50 Longest contig Total bases Standard Velvet (low 35,554 219bp 5,249 bp 7.3 Mb shotgun min. cov.) library Velvet (low 35,016 221 bp5,249 bp 7.2 Mb min. cov.) + phrap Velvet (high 14,373 388 bp 16,698 bp 4.3 Mb min. cov.) Subassembled phrap 82,457 482 bp 5,400 bp 35.7 Mb reads *Comparison of various strategies to assemble short reads from astandard Illumina ® shotgun library prepared from the metagenomic sampleto phrap assembly of the full complement of SA reads from the samesample. Listed is the assembly input, the assembly strategy used (lowcoverage = 2x minimum, high coverage = 20x minimum), the number ofcontigs produced (at least 100 bp in length), the N50, the length of thelongest contig produced, and the total bases of sequence produced. Ahigh coverage cutoff during Velvet assembly improved contig length atthe expense of total sequence produced, and also likely at the expenseof sequences from less highly represented organisms.

To further evaluate the performance of the present methods againststandard short-read sequencing in the context of a metagenomic sample,assembled contigs generated from paired-end short reads and by thesubassembly methods described herein were compared to the 37.2 Mb ofSanger sequence recently reported from the same sample (M. G.Kalyuzhnaya, A. Lapidus, N. Ivanova et al., Nat. Biotechnol. 26 (9):1029(2008)). The presence of a complex population of related and unrelatedorganisms in the sample precluded a direct evaluation of assemblyquality as compared to the Sanger data. Therefore, BLAST was used toalign contigs against the assembled Sanger sequence using stringentparameters in order to conservatively estimate the effective coverageachieved by each method. As shown in FIG. 21, contigs produced fromshort reads and the Sanger “reference” contained 1.18 Mb of sequence incommon, contigs produced from SA reads shared 4.19 Mb of sequence withthe Sanger data, and contigs from short reads and from SA readscontained 3.14 Mb in common. The alignment tool maq was used to assesscoverage by both sets of raw Illumina® reads. The assembly of shortreads using Velvet followed by phrap collapsed coverage by nearly afactor of 15, while subassembly followed by phrap assembly of SA readscollapsed coverage by less than a factor of 3.

While the complexity of this metagenomic population likely remainsunder-sampled, the methods described herein covered more than threetimes as much of the Sanger data and better maintained the complexity ofthe raw data when compared to assembly of a standard short-read library.In addition, the present method was able to generate a comparable amountof total sequence compared to state-of-the-art capillary electrophoresismethods, albeit in somewhat shorter contigs (N50 of 482 bp vs 877 bp),with considerably less effort (three Illumina® sequencing lanes versushundreds of Sanger sequencing runs).

This example demonstrates that subassembly facilitates significantimprovements in assembly of short read sequencing data from metagenomiclibraries to useful lengths, which should aid in length-dependentsequence analyses such as accurate phylogenetic classification (ArthurBrady and Steven L. Salzberg, Nat. Meth. (advance online publication)(2009)), and gene discovery (A. L. Delcher, D. Harmon, S. Kasif et al.,Nucleic Acids Res. 27(23):4636 (1999)).

The present methods provide a straightforward, in vitro protocol thatsignificantly extends the capability of cost-effective second-generationsequencing platforms to yield highly accurate, long sequencing reads.This approach may be most useful for metagenomics, although there aremany other applications where long reads have continued to be critical,e.g., in assessing VDJ diversity (J. A. Weinstein, N. Jiang, R. A.White, 3rd et al., Science 324(5928):807 (2009)). While initialexperiments were focused on long DNA fragment libraries in the 400-600bp range, SA reads of nearly 1 kilobase were also observed. In concertwith the tag-pairing approach (FIG. 11C), this could potentially extendthe length of SA reads to as long as 2 kilobases, i.e., nearly twice aslong as even the longest Sanger sequencing reads. This method maysignificantly extend the utility of the most cost-effectivesecond-generation sequencing platforms to environmental metagenomics andmay prove useful in other contexts as well.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated anddescribed, it will be appreciated that various changes can be madetherein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A method for detecting errors occurring in the preparation and/orsequencing of a DNA sequencing library, the method comprising: (a)incorporating at least one first nucleic acid adaptor molecule into atleast one member of a target library comprising a plurality of nucleicacid molecules, wherein the first adaptor molecule comprises a firstdefined sequence; (b) amplifying the plurality of nucleic acid moleculesto produce an input library comprising a first plurality of amplifiedDNA molecules, wherein the amplified molecules comprise a sequenceidentical to or complementary to at least a portion of the first adaptormolecule and sequence identical to or complementary to at least aportion of the at least one member of the target library; (c) sequencingat least a portion of the plurality of amplified DNA molecules toproduce a plurality of sequencing reads corresponding to the at leastone member of the target library; (d) grouping the plurality ofsequencing reads that correspond to the at least one member of thetarget library; and (e) detecting whether an error exists at anucleotide position, wherein an error exists when variation ofnucleotide identity exists among the grouped sequencing reads at aposition corresponding to a nucleotide in the at least one member of thetarget library.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the method furthercomprises determining the correct identity of the nucleotide at theposition where variation of nucleotide identity is detected, wherein thecorrect identity is determined as the most probable base call based onthe consensus of the individual base calls in the plurality of groupedsequencing reads.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the consensus ofindividual base calls is the most common base call at the nucleotideposition in the plurality of grouped sequencing reads.
 4. The method ofclaim 3, wherein the consensus of individual base calls in the pluralityof grouped sequencing reads is determined considering unambiguous basecalls in the plurality of grouped sequencing reads at the nucleotideposition.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the method further compriseseliminating from further analysis the identity of the nucleotide at theposition in a sequencing read where an error is detected.
 6. The methodof claim 1, wherein the method further comprises eliminating fromfurther analysis a sequencing read determined to comprise a sequencingerror.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein the sequencing read isdetermined to comprise a sequencing error when it comprises a nucleotidebase call that differs from the consensus nucleotide base call providedby the grouped plurality of sequencing reads.
 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the plurality of sequencing reads that correspond to the atleast one member of the target library comprise a common tag sequence,whereby the plurality of sequencing reads are grouped based on havingthe common sequence tag.
 9. The method of claim 8, wherein the commontag sequence is derived from a source selected from the group consistingof a unique nucleotide sequence in the incorporated first adaptormolecule and an endogenous nucleotide sequence in the at least onemember of the target library adjacent to the incorporated first nucleicacid adaptor molecule.
 10. The method of claim 1, further comprisingfragmenting at least a portion of the first plurality of amplified DNAmolecules in the input library from step (b) to produce a plurality oflinear DNA fragments having a first end and a second end.
 11. The methodof claim 10, further comprising attaching at least one second nucleicacid adaptor molecule to one or both ends of at least one of theplurality of linear DNA fragments, wherein the second adaptor moleculecomprises a second defined sequence.
 12. The method of claim 11, furthercomprising amplifying the plurality of linear DNA fragments to produce asecond plurality of amplified DNA molecules, wherein at least one of thesecond plurality of amplified DNA molecules comprises a sequenceidentical to or complementary to at least a portion of the first adaptormolecule, a sequence identical to or complementary to at least a portionof the second adaptor molecule, and a sequence identical to orcomplementary to at least a portion of a member of the target library.13. The method of claim 12, wherein at least a portion of the secondplurality of amplified DNA molecules is sequenced in step (c) of themethod to produce a plurality of associated sequence reads for eachsequenced DNA molecule corresponding to the at least one member of thetarget library.
 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the associatedsequences comprise a first sequence read and a second sequence read,wherein the first sequence comprises a tag sequence adjacent to thefirst defined sequence of the first adaptor that uniquely identifies asingle nucleic acid member of the target library, and wherein the secondsequence comprises a sequence adjacent to the second defined sequence ofthe second adaptor and represents the sequence adjacent to a fragmentbreakpoint from the fragmented input library.
 15. The method of claim13, where in the tag sequence adjacent to the first defined sequence ofthe first adaptor is derived from a source selected from the groupconsisting of a unique nucleotide sequence in the first adaptor moleculeand an endogenous nucleotide sequence in the at least one member of thetarget library adjacent to the incorporated first nucleic acid adaptormolecule.
 16. The method of claim 14, wherein a plurality of secondsequence reads that are each associated with a first sequence readcontaining a common tag sequence identifying a single nucleic acidmember of the target library, whereby the plurality of second sequencereads are grouped in step (d) of the method.
 17. The method of claim 1,wherein the grouping step (d) comprises generating an alignment of theplurality of sequencing reads.
 18. The method of claim 1, wherein theincorporating at least one first nucleic acid adaptor molecule into atleast one member of a target library in step (a) results in at least onecircular nucleic acid molecules comprising the first nucleic acidadaptor and the member of a target library.
 19. A method for correctingerrors occurring in the preparation and/or sequencing of a DNAsequencing library, the method comprising: (a) incorporating at leastone first nucleic acid adaptor molecule into at least one member of atarget library comprising a plurality of nucleic acid molecules, whereinthe first adaptor molecule comprises a first defined sequence; (b)amplifying the plurality of nucleic acid molecules to produce an inputlibrary comprising a first plurality of amplified DNA molecules, whereinthe amplified molecules comprise a sequence identical to orcomplementary to at least a portion of the first adaptor molecule and asequence identical to or complementary to at least a portion of the atleast one member of the target library; (c) sequencing at least aportion of the plurality of amplified DNA molecules to produce aplurality of sequencing reads corresponding to the at least one memberof the target library; (d) grouping the plurality of sequencing readsthat correspond to the at least one member of the target library; (e)detecting whether an error exists at a nucleotide position, wherein anerror exists when variation of nucleotide identity exists among thegrouped sequencing reads at a position corresponding to a nucleotide inthe at least one member of the target library; and (f) determining thecorrect identity of the nucleotide at the position where variation ofnucleotide identity is detected, wherein the correct identity isdetermined as the most probable base call based on the consensus of theindividual base calls in the plurality of grouped sequencing reads. 20.The method of claim 19, wherein the consensus of individual base callsin the plurality of grouped sequencing reads is the most commonunambiguous base call from the plurality of grouped sequencing reads atthe nucleotide position.